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Water in forward and stern buoyancy tanks

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PaulK:
Hello everyone. This is my first post here, as I’m in the process of hopefully purchasing a 2013 BRe from the SY brokerage site.

I’d very much appreciate some advice from owners on an issue that the surveyor has found. When he opened the stern buoyancy tanks in the cockpit benches, there was 2-3 inches of water in both.  He also noted condensation on the underside of the forward tank lids (he couldn’t open them by hand, so it isn’t clear whether there is free surface water in the tanks). He recommended drying the tanks, fitting new seals followed by a hose test.

I understand from Matt at SY that the cockpit lids “always leak a tiny bit”. So not to worry. I can understand the leaky lids, as the design probably precludes complete watertight ness, but my non-boaty wife asked me, quite reasonably, whether water in buoyancy tanks is “a good sign in a boat”! In particular, water in the forward tanks seems slightly unnerving as they don’t get rained on.

Can I please ask whether you have similar amounts of water present? If you do, any advice on how you manage it?

With many thanks in advance.

Paul Knight

Jonathan Stuart:
My BRe always had some water in the aft buoyancy chambers but never more than an inch or two in the bottom, so this sounds normal. Having discovered this, I sponged out the water, put silicone grease on the o-rings and they then remained dry. Notwithstanding the arguments against storing stuff in buoyancy chambers, they were then dry enough to store our seleeping bags, water and spare fuel when camping on the boat.

The forward chamber was always bone dry. But, from memory, the only see-through lid on mine was in the cabin on the ballast tank. The buoyancy chambers had white plastic lids. I assume they are see-though on this boat and the surveyor wasn't looking at the ballast tank - surely not, but might be worth checking. The buoyancy lids should be removable but the cabin ballast lid can be done up very tightly to avoid leaks - and we siliconed ours in place because it did leak but then of course couldn't be opened, which was fine - so that also made me wonder which lid he was looking at.

Sea Simon:
Simply put, i agree with all that JS has already posted.

I use my aft buoyancy tanks to store excess fenders and similar, and a long length of hose that could be fitted to my extra-large, secondary bilge pump, and used to pump out my cabin...yet to be used in anger... thankfully!

Due to the shape of these tanks, I would suggest that "an inch or two of water" perhaps sounds worse than it actually is?

R and J:
Yes, I agree that a grease compatible with the O ring seal is a good way forward.

Imperfect seals don’t remove the possibility of water entering for other reasons but on our BRe we do see small amounts of water in the buoyancy tanks which we sponge out from time to time. Perhaps this is down to condensation as explained next.

Over last winter, with a brand new boat never having been used and likely checked for leaks by Swallow Yachts, and with the boat raised at the bow we had about 1 to 2 inches of water at the rear of the tank on one side and much much less on the other. Where the water was most was exposed to wind and sunshine, the other by a wall was more protected from temperature changes. I suspect sun was warming the air in the tank and then later was cooled by wind drawing moist air past the seal to then condense into liquid which we find. This process repeats and can build to a significant amount. In our case the exposed side produced more moisture than the protected side.
That’s my theory anyway.
No rain water was able to get on the deck or inside the cockpit, meaning water entering for any other reason is unlikely. If any had it would likely drain away as the bow was raised.

I haven’t done a swamp test as we did every year on our dinghies years ago. That test would perhaps help knowing for sure about the integrity of the buoyancy tanks. We were allowed a pint or two (litre) per small tank after 40 mins of swamping.

I don’t expect their to be anything wrong with our boat. I will however follow the suggestion to apply some compatible grease to the seal

BRe 089 ‘Sparkle’

PaulK:
Thank you all for the super speedy and reassuring replies!

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