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Emmastevens

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Hello

I have a 2001   Freedom Gateway Runabout 5 metres W/75 HP Honda 4 Strokes.

During our trip in the bay yesterday I got plenty of water on the back (around 160 litres) .

I specify that there were no big waves.

Just that when starting my boat goes bit straight for a few seconds before accelerating so that she is going finally horizontal .

 it was stressful for me to remove out the water and my boat was very straight to the conduct .

When I was back home after inspection the hull is absolutely perfect but I saw where the water could surely enter. 

See photos, is that normal ? 

This seal must be perfectly waterproof? 

Is it possible to add a pump on this type of boat ?

Yesterday the level of the water was very close to the batteries.  Is it possible to buy a waterproof box for them ? 

Cheers have a good day Emma. ps hope you ll understand as french lady my tipping is no good thank you in advance 

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Hi Emma. I have 2 suggestions for you:

To find the leak, fill that area up with fresh water. You can add a bit of food colouring to make seeing any water leaks easier, but you may not want to add that in case you stain your fibreglass gel coat. Hopefully you will be able to see where the water is coming from if there is a leak.

secondly, I would be surprised if that boat did not have a bilge pump installed so you can pump out any water while you are still out there? Check where all your switches are and see if one is labelled as bilge or bilge pump. Then test to see if it is working. You will hear a sort of humming sound if it working. If you don’t hear anything you should get it fixed because it is an important safety item.

Good luck!

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I would say that is the most likely place for that water to have gotten in to your boat, every time you go off the plane, there would be a good chance that the back wash would flood that area when you come to a stop. That to me looks like a very poor installation/position job. Apart from having a bilge pump with an automatic  float in that area you could also mask off the outside where the tubes are coming out and then fill the area from the inside with a tube of Silastic, but that would take quite a bit of time to cure properly. Normally that tube from the outside would go through that hole fitting into the boat and it would only be a minor sealant job on the outside to stop water going through.

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2 hours ago, Kenne said:

 

Thank you guys 

You are a legend 🤩 

I learning a lot on this website. 

I think I don t have a bad knowledge of motorcycles  off road and 4x4 but my love  is completely different at many  point but I love to learned and know what's going on🤣 

I find a little blidge pump underneath. It was fixed with silicone but it is no longer fixed.

I tested the pump (video ) and it s works well. 

I really love this website thanks a lot.

Have a good day mates and happy Australia day 🇭🇲

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4 hours ago, Emmastevens said:

Certainly  the old silicone blocks water drainage no ?  

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Looks like the pump is working fine, Emma. The water is sucked through the slots on the side, not through the bottom. You should clean some of that excess silicone off the bottom before you use fresh silicone to attach it again.

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hi @Emmastevens,

 

I previously owned your boats big brother - a freedom escape 5.3m, a lot of the photos you posted look very familiar to me, the hulls are incredibly similar. 

 

you will often get water come through that cable hole in the rear, 160L on a calmer day i the bay is way more than you would reasonably expect though.  if it was a rougher day in the bay of offshore it splashed in through there regularly and may have accumulated to that much in a full day.  as other users have suggested, I would inspect your bungs and even just replace them as a matter of course - they are not an expensive item at all and freedom uses a farily standard size which is easy to obtain.  @Old Scaley suggestion of putting the bung in and deliberately adding water inside the hull works great to identify leaks.  wait until the boat is completely dry, suggest you wind the jockey wheel up so the boat is slightly nose-up, when dead level the water tends to sit basically under the front seats owing to the hull shape.  then you will need to get under the boat and look for any damp patches, weirdly, this is actually easier at night with a decent headlamp as the water is shiny on the hull.

as far as the battery goes, you can certainly get battery boxes, however, it is unlikely you will find a waterproof one as batteries also need to breathe.  we ended up making a bit of a shelf out of plywood with a recessed area for the battery, this helped it stay in place and also kept it up off the floor to allow water to drain through underneath.

 

also - @Another Wazza - that hole you point out is a drainage hole from the deck into the bilge on the freedoms.

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Good advice so far, and yes if it was me I would be filling the hull with water while on the trailer to see if there are any leaks.

As for the bungs, the rubber o-rings that go around the bungs can become dry and crack - check them and if needed you can just replace the o-rings (if you have spares of same size).

160 litres is a lot of water (and weight) - I would be very keen to find out why and how to fix it before I ventured too far in your boat.

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On 26/01/2021 at 10:24 AM, Emmastevens said:

Hello

I have a 2001   Freedom Gateway Runabout 5 metres W/75 HP Honda 4 Strokes.

During our trip in the bay yesterday I got plenty of water on the back (around 160 litres) .

I specify that there were no big waves.

Just that when starting my boat goes bit straight for a few seconds before accelerating so that she is going finally horizontal .

 it was stressful for me to remove out the water and my boat was very straight to the conduct .

When I was back home after inspection the hull is absolutely perfect but I saw where the water could surely enter. 

See photos, is that normal ? 

This seal must be perfectly waterproof? 

Is it possible to add a pump on this type of boat ?

Yesterday the level of the water was very close to the batteries.  Is it possible to buy a waterproof box for them ? 

Cheers have a good day Emma. ps hope you ll understand as french lady my tipping is no good thank you in advance 

Resized_20210125_161244.jpeg

20210126_085523.jpg

20210125_180841.jpg

20210125_181836.jpg

20210125_181849.jpg

That rubber boot around the cables looks in pretty fair condition.  This is what stops the water pouring in through this area, so I don’t believe that 100+ litres have entered through here.  I’d be looking elsewhere for the major problem that the water is getting in.  You’ll be surprised how much water can get in through worn out bungs.  Next time your out, get someone one their belly having a look where water is coming from.  If there is that much coming in, surely you will see where from.  I replaced all four bungs and found a broken skin fitting that was letting water through.

I had a similar problem, and found it by looking when at sea.  There is a lot of water pressure on the boat when in the water.

good luck and cheers

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