flushing motor and draining from drain hole in wet slip

[seminolewind]

Yes, I'm really new at this. Daily maintenance calls for rinsing the salt water thru the motor and pulling the plug and letting the bilge area drain. How do you do those things with a boat kept in a wet slip? If I clean and rinse the boat , where does that water go?

[Reiner]

You need to let us know what kind of boat you have and what engine set up; outboard inboard etc.

[FLOUNDERPOUNDER225]

Ok, flushing the motor would depend on what motor you have? Yamahas have a fresh water flushing attachment that you can just hook the hose to, and turn the water on, do not run the engine from this flush port, there is not enough water running through the system for cooling and water pump impeller lubrication, you might damage something. If you have an older motor without one of these flushing ports, #1, they make after market connectors that can be installed, or #2 just tilt your motor up, attach the flushing muffs to the engine, tilt it down, turn the water on and start your engine. In either situation since it sounds like your in saltwater, always use Salt Away http://www.saltawayproducts.com/ . for draining the bilge, I have to ask; is this a pontoon or mono-hull fiberglass boat? Pontoons don't normally have a bilge, or a drain plug. here is the flushing hose on a yamaha

[seminolewind]

Sorry! It's a Hurricane 2014, 188 and a 150 4 stroke Yamaha. I see the connections for running water thru. Sounds easy.

I'd like to know if I wash my boat down inside , where does that water go? How do I drain it? And what about opening the plug? Thanks!

[Rick McC.]

[quote="seminolewind"]Sorry! It's a Hurricane 2014, 188 and a 150 4 stroke Yamaha. I see the connections for running water thru. Sounds easy.

I'd like to know if I wash my boat down inside , where does that water go? How do I drain it? And what about opening the plug? Thanks![/quote]

My Hurricane had two drains in the rear corners that drained water off the "floor" through an opening in the port side.

However; some of the drain holes in the storage compartments and head (basically everything but the live well and fish box) drained into the bilge.

[zoom650]

After a couple days of use in the Gulf, I'd tilt the Yami's up, hook up a hose and flush them.

If you have a bilge, I hope you have a bilge pump. I'd hose down my bilge and then hit the pumps.

[FLOUNDERPOUNDER225]

Orpine Boat Wash is a good product, and biodegradable/environmentally friendly also West Marine has the line of StarBrite products that can be used for wet slipped boats. For the bilge.. if it gets nasty, I would get some simple green, add a good amount of water, disable your bilge pump temporarily and take the boat for a ride, the sloshing around will clean the bilge, then engage your bilge pump and drain it all out.

[NonHyphenAmerican]

I googled Hurricane 188 and it looks as if you have a v-hull boat rather than a pontoon.

I'm going to guess and assume that you have a bilge pump in that boat.

Hose down the boat, turn on the bilge pump until it's drained the bilge and you should be good.

As stated earlier, you can flush the motor with fresh water, then leave it tilted.

[Rick McC.]

[quote="NonHyphenAmerican"]I googled Hurricane 188 and it looks as if you have a v-hull boat rather than a pontoon.

I'm going to guess and assume that you have a bilge pump in that boat.

Hose down the boat, turn on the bilge pump until it's drained the bilge and you should be good.

As stated earlier, you can flush the motor with fresh water, then leave it tilted.[/quote]

Yep; Hurricanes are fiberglass hulled deck boats of various configurations.

If they were 'toons; they wouldn't have a bilge.

My 248 GS had a manual/auto pump in the bilge.

[seminolewind]

I'm trying to find out if , say, you're on your way home, you remove the plug and the water drains out as you drive. When you are going to drop the boat in the water, you put the plug back in.

If I'm keeping the boat in a wet slip do I just rely on the bilge pump?

If wet slipped and washed the boat down inside the seated area, does the bilge take care of that water too?

I had a bow rider in the 80's but hubs took care of all that and I didn't really pay attention.
Now it seems, being female (no excuse) I am alone at taking care of things and don't want to keep asking the marina every little question. It's bad enough I left them with a disconnected bimini mess, and should use 2 people to put it up and take it down until I have learned all the steps in the right order.

Thanks for helping. I'm in this alone because hubs is somewhat handicapped and won't touch the deck boat because it's not a pontoon. I'll bet I'm getting redundant here, LOL.

Okay, wet slip, any water on deck or in the bilge gets pumped out with the bilge pump, not removing the plug.

[Rick McC.]

[quote="seminolewind"]I'm trying to find out if , say, you're on your way home, you remove the plug and the water drains out as you drive. When you are going to drop the boat in the water, you put the plug back in.

If I'm keeping the boat in a wet slip do I just rely on the bilge pump?

If wet slipped and washed the boat down inside the seated area, does the bilge take care of that water too?

I had a bow rider in the 80's but hubs took care of all that and I didn't really pay attention.
Now it seems, being female (no excuse) I am alone at taking care of things and don't want to keep asking the marina every little question. It's bad enough I left them with a disconnected bimini mess, and should use 2 people to put it up and take it down until I have learned all the steps in the right order.

Thanks for helping. I'm in this alone because hubs is somewhat handicapped and won't touch the deck boat because it's not a pontoon. I'll bet I'm getting redundant here, LOL.

Okay, wet slip, any water on deck or in the bilge gets pumped out with the bilge pump, not removing the plug.[/quote]

On all of my monohull boats; the auto bilge pump would shut off with water still in the bilge that the manual setting would remove. Not a problem; just the "nature of the beast" with a float switch.

My Hurricane would collect a LOT of rain water in the bilge before the auto pump would come on, due to the hull design, and size.

I made a habit of going out and standing on the rear of the boat next to the outboard every couple of weeks. That would raise the bow a bit, allow the water to move to the rear, and soon the auto pump would kick on, and pump for 2-3 minutes.

We owned that boat for over 10 years, and it stayed in the water at our dock year round. I only took it out when a hurricane was forecast to be coming our way.

[seminolewind]

Thanks a bunch, everyone!

Are there any happy deck boat owners? Or should I bite the bullet and.......... I would have to get over the cuteness of the Hurricane I have. I go back and forth. Usually it's just me who goes out alone. So I wonder if I should get into a pontoon . It's a lot of boat for one person.

[Rick McC.]

[quote="seminolewind"]Thanks a bunch, everyone!

Are there any happy deck boat owners? Or should I bite the bullet and.......... I would have to get over the cuteness of the Hurricane I have. I go back and forth. Usually it's just me who goes out alone. So I wonder if I should get into a pontoon . It's a lot of boat for one person.[/quote]


We liked the performance of the deckboat, but I got very tired of all the cleaning dealing with the white gelcoat everywhere.

As I noted above; our boats stay in the water for years at a time, and after 10 plus years of the fiberglass, we wanted to go back to something a bit lower maintenance, and with a smaller engine for better mileage.

[seminolewind]

Mine has white but the marina washes it down every use. With the inside I'm glad the white vinyl is not that bright white but an off white. Performance wise. The boat is nice on a lower chop, but I know if I cut thru them diagonally it's okay. The other boat wakes is a problem and since the season is under way the 3 mile channel is a long trip. However, I've learned to slow down to take the initial wake and get into their wake where the water is nice and smooth. So that's fine.

There's got to be more helpful hints to lessen the bumpiness. Anyone?

[FLOUNDERPOUNDER225]

there is nothing you can do to improve the ride of a deckboat like hurricane or any of the others in rough seas, because of the hull design they have little to no dead rise in the hull from about 1/3 back from the bow. the middle hull has good entry deadrise, but it dissipates quickly as you go aft. when you are up on plane cruising, that bow entry "V" is not even in the water, so when you hit a wave the boat is taking most of it on the large flat hull area, much like the old tri-hulls we ran as kids down in south FL. They are a very stable platform but will knock your teeth out if you catch a wake the wrong way. when we sold our big CC and were shopping for tritoons many dealerships tried to steer us to the deck boats like hurricane, but my experience with those hull designs knew better. My tritoon can take a 3.5 ft wake off a 50 foot sport fisher that's cruising, and slide through it like a knife at 30 MPH, and never spill a drop of beer. as with all boats, there are different hull designs all intended to be optimal in their intended environment, the reason Tritoons have become so popular is they are crossing the lines of performance of many mono hull boats, just as the catamaran hull did for off-shore fishing boats.