(updated) So, I think I have a hole in my boat.....

Could be a number of things... Leaking at the lower mounting bolt holes for the motor. I imagine your live well has a pump that intakes water from below the water line to fill the well. Could be leaking where that pump goes through the hull or leaking from any of the other thru-hull holes in the boat.

Your idea of putting the plug in and filling it with water could be a good one.

I hear ya.... Good luck with everything.

i would let a professional look at it. it could get worse

Mine was leaking and it turned out to be my livewell stopped up with shad. I put a shop vac on all my fitting and vacuumed the shad otta hose.

Fill er up it is! I will also blow out all my drain lines too. Good possibility of some shrimp stuck in there

quote:

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.fill the boat up with water from the the inside

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Sorry -- with all due respect, this is *NOT* a good idea. Cajun wiring harnesses are not water tight at the connections. You may luck out and find the leak with this method - but I doubt it. You will certainly end up causing some long-term ill effects to your wiring harness -- guaranteed.

I agree the most likely cause is thru-hull fittings leaking. Are you sure you plugged all through hull fittings? Depending on your model, you may have a thru-hull fitting toward the bow of the boat for a drain of the live well. A lot of times, the hoses for the drains will wear down at touch points with the hull -- a small leak in a hose can cause significant water showing up in the hull. Especially if the hose you have is the corrugated plastic kind. The rubber hoses are a bit more durable.

Also -- for trying to figure out if the gouged spot is leaking: after you run the boat in the water, dry off the gouged area and take a rubber mallet and slightly bang around the suspected leaky area. If water is leaking into the boat there, the vibration from the rubber mallet will cause some water to come out of the crack -- any amount of water escaping means you have a leak.

by the way -- the keel of your boat is about 3/4 inches thick -- it'd have to be one hell of a gouge to be leaking.

I definately would NOT fill the boat with water. You can "sink" a boat on a trailer and you will likely have way more problems down the road with electrical juctions.

Like someone else said that would have to be a really deep gouge to let water into the hull and not sure but I'd think it might be above the water line.

I check the drain on your livewell and the all the thru hull fittings.

i wouldnt 'fill' the boat up, but I would put some in it to replicate the amout of water that did get in it to a degree. if it comes out then youve found the leak. If not,then you can pull the plugs and drain it. I would never 'fill' the boat, but I would put some in it to see if the leak was near the bottom or the seams.
my.02

Putting water in the boat is an acceptable method for finding a leak. You dont "sink" it, you add just enough to cover the bottom of the bilge and then start looking. There should not be any electrical other than a bilge pump down there.

If you dont find anything that way, time to start looking at thru hulls that are higher on the boat.

FWIW, I think its very unlikely the leak is in the bottom of the boat, its going to be at a fitting somewhere and most of them should be on the transom or side of the gunwal.

yeah....I figured that one though