[C38] Fresh water disappearing

[Les Howell]

If your bilge is dry and the pump has not run that you have noticed, you
may have a leak somewhere on deck.  On JACE formerly Infinity, there was
a hose fitting in the anchor locker for using for freshwater washdown I
guess.  Anyway, it had sprung a leak in the valve that was supposed to
shut it off when no connection was made.  It was a pinhole, but with the
pump on, it would dump about 20gals overnight, leaving no trace
anywhere.  Check the stern, the anchor locker and where ever there might
be a fitting that you can think of, and last resort go into the snakpit
(bilge where all the various hoses run) and trace them out to see where
they go.  I was really amazed at how many hoses there were running
around under there.  
	Basically you have a hose that runs through the bilge from the
freshwater tank back to the pump.  The pump was located on the port side
under the galley dry goods locker.   From the pump there are various
Tee's and hoses to the following locations:  
	aft to the water heater if you have one,
	up to the sink cold water spigot
	forward to the sink in the head
	forward in my case to the freshwater washdown.
>From the water heater it goes to forward to the galley hot water line,
and again forward to the sink in the head. 
	
	Other hoses:
	fill hose from the deck fitting down and forward to the freshwater
tank.  From the top of the tank a bleed line up to inside the port side.
Don't remember now where it came out.
	That was all the freshwater I remember.  

	Also in the snakepit are the bilge pump and its hose in the bilge,
strapped to the starboard side of the opening on my boat, then aft to
the stern seat locker, then to outboard fitting on the stern for
pumpout.  
	The bilge also holds the end of the manual bilge pump hose, 1" non
colapsable hose on Jace,  It leads back to the stern locker, where the
bilge pump was located.  I think many owners had one also in the bilge
area.  under the 5' long bilge access.  If so that one also leads aft
and all three are teed into the exhaust port line.  On JACE the output
line was larger and non-collapsing, but glued into an extension which
then went to the through-hull.
	There is another 3/8 or 1/2" hose that is used to capture DC wiring
from the port to the starboard area behind the vertical cushions in the
salon.  It is about 8' long, and goes from the behind the starboard
cushion back area to near the mast at the inboard end of the Waste Water
tank.  This bundle includes the wires to the mast lights and the
macerator.
	Yours may vary as owners tend to make modifications to suit as they
replace or rebuild these hoses and pumps.
	I added a washdown pump on jace under the Vee berth but never got it
fully wired in and plumbed.  I mounted that pump to one of the support
boards under the Vee Berth and ran the wires aft through the wiring loom
already on the starboard side.

	I would suggest putting a terminal strip to hold the bilge pump wires
to make it easier to change out the bilge pump.  That bit of the wiring
was a bit short on JACE and I had to put on some wire stretchers and new
butt type connectors, but I think a terminal strip is a much better
solution, and more permanent.

I don't know if any of this will help, but maybe it will give you some
hand in sorting out that snake pit ;-).  Don't forget all the essential
vocabulary when scraping your hands, elbows and knees finding where the
gremlins moved all that stuff!!

Best of luck,
Les H