CONTINUOUSWAVE

I recently purchased a 2013 130 Super Sport that was a mostly a trailer-queen for five years of very little use. The 130 SUPER SPORT has a Mercury 40-HP engine, two fuel tanks, and an Odyssey AGM battery.

The hull was recently bottom painted.

I filled the two fuel tanks and berthed the 130 SUPER SPORT at our dock.

I can't pull the deck drain without a lot of water coming into the boat, even when I get out of the boat. Whaler describes this hull as having a self bailing and draining deck of sorts.

To anyone with a similar 130 SUPER SPORT with this power package and full tanks: [does your 13O SUPER SPORT ship water aboard when the deck drain is open to the sea?]

When a drain is open to the sea, water will flow into the boat until the water in the sump area rises to match the hull waterline. If the static trim on the boat puts the deck below the waterline, the deck will flood.

The more water in the boat, the more the hull must immerse to create buoyancy. As the hull waterline rises, so will the water level in the boat. If the hull shape does not create reserve buoyancy—usually by the flaring to a wider beam—the trend continues. At some point an equilibrium is reached and water rise should stop.

Equilibrium may occur with only an inch or two of water on the deck and often only on the aft part of the deck.

How high have you let the water rise in your test before stopping the test?

You may have not let the system reach equilibrium.

I didn't let it go on for too long, because it seemed like it was getting worse. So I jumped back in the boat and put the plug back in, then dewatered the boat.

What Whaler shows as the amount of the water that should come into the boat here is nothing like what I experienced.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2lV99207nY

I will add that my hull has the max horsepower, and I filled both fuel tanks before launching the boat.

Boston Whaler has made the self bailing claim for a long time and it will self bail after reaching an equilibrium between weight and buoyancy. The concern I have with this claim is self bailing to me means the scuppers are above the water and any water entering the deck area then exits through scuppers or another point. Over the years I've owned many Whalers and tried removing removing the plug so on the mooring it would "self bail" but found that water poured into the boat several inches deep and then stopped. I guess from this equilibrium it would then "self bail" any additional water that entered, but the boat sits on the mooring for the summer in the salt water and the thought of applying bottom paint to the interior wasn't an option.

My other boats have self bailing decks with no problems, no plugs and drain water a very fast rate.

My Whaler has a pump to remove water that enters the deck area and needs to be drained, my other boats do not have this problem.

D-

There isn't a claim that the stern will be dry, just that once equilibrium is reached, any additional water will drain.

You will note that the subject boat is totally empty and not a good representative sample.

There is nothing wrong with a few inches of water sitting on the deck of the boat.

Thank you for the replies.

The self bailing claim seems largely conditioned [for the boat] to be rigged to the lightest specifications and other factors. Maybe the 13 does not share the same characteristics as the 15 in this regard, something they conveniently leave out of their advertising.

Here was Whalers response to an email I sent them:

Typically, yes this will happen. The deck is not really a self bailing deck when sitting static. It drains best while underway. Because of the low free-board of the boat and the deck height, it was a challenge to get the boat high enough out of the water when loaded down and allow the deck to self bail while sitting static.

Phil T wrote:There isn't a claim that the stern will be dry, just that once equilibrium is reached, any additional water will drain.

You will note that the subject boat is totally empty and not a good representative sample.

There is nothing wrong with a few inches of water sitting on the deck of the boat.

There is a claim that only a tiny bit of water will enter the boat, they emphasized that aspect, but that is NOT what I experienced, far from it. The subject boat is as empty as my boat, we're talking about a bare bones SS here, so other than the power package on my hull is the max rating for the hull, maybe that is the defining difference, but I would think with me getting out of the boat that should have more than offset any weight difference between a 30hp and 40hp motor. The only other possible difference being that both my fuel tanks are full, but again, I would think with me stepping out of the boat that should have offset the weight difference.

Sorry, their claims as represented in that video do not seem to align with reality, at least with respect to the 13 SS.

Phil T wrote:There is nothing wrong with a few inches of water sitting on the deck of the boat.

I'm not sure I agree with you Phil.

If I were to pull the plug on many of my previous Whalers and current (all self bailing) and leave on the mooring over the summer months I use it, algae and growth would occur inside the hull since it's a ripe environment in the sun and a constant supply of saltwater through the drain plug. While I never left my plug out because my (self bailing) Whalers usually had 2" of standing water with the plug removed, I used a small bilge pump in the recessed area where the drain plug is located to keep the boat bailed or de-watered since there seems to be a difference.

As a kid my dad would toss me a Clorox cut into a shape that would allow for bailing (de-watering) and would ask me to bail the dingy. If there was any water left in the dingy, it wasn't bailed and my work wasn't done. While my personal experience and definition of bailing may not fit the definition Whaler intended for marketing purposed for standing water, I can tell you in a saltwater environment, a boat with standing water will stimulate marine growth. A boat in freshwater may not support this as well, but if the pond or lake has a high iron content, then standing water will be an concern with hull water stains on the interior.

Heck, the motor well drains on one of my previous Montauk 17 boats would grow seaweed in the motor well scupper recess and I'd scrub it out weekly. I cannot even image doing this to the interior of a Whaler.

D-

If the most important aspect of the boat is to have a raised deck that drains to the sea without a drop of water remaining, you’ll have to get a different boat.

The culprit [in causing the cockpit sump to overflow when the drain is open to the sea] is probably the second fuel tank.

I have the same 130 SUPER SPORT boat. Water comes in [via the cockpit drains] if my 6.5-gallon fuel tank is full. I find moving the fuel tank all the way forward when docked and adding a 5-gallon bucket filled with water near the bow solved the problem with self-bailing.

Experiment to find how much water your boat needs [to raise the trim at the stern so the inflow of water does overflow the sump]. More than one 5-gallon bucket may be needed.

When I take out my boat I just throw overboard the water in the bucket at the bow, and I move the fuel tank back. I hope [moving the fuel tank and adding a bucket of water at the bow] helps you.

Re freshwater and saltwater:

I see many boats that are left in freshwater lakes that have no anti-fouling paint, but the hulls do have a rather distinct scum or stain line at their static water line.

My boat has neither the recommended two-part epoxy paint nor the recommended anti-fouling paint, but the hull is seldom immersed in water for more than six or seven consecutive days. The rest of the time it is on a trailer. When the hull is in water, the water is often the cold (50-degree-F) and clear water of the northern Great Lakes, and in that environment there is no concern about marine growth or hull staining.

I was astonished at the rate of marine growth on the hull that occurred in a quiet marina along the Alabama coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The boat was only in that water for six days and accumulated a nice crop of organisms firmly attached to the hull. They had to be vigorously scrubbed off to remove them. In contrast, in 14 days in the water of the cold Pacific Ocean in British Columbia, the hull was pulled out without any sign of marine growth or staining.

If a 130 SPORT boat is to be kept in the water with an open cockpit drain, then clearly the outcome of that will be affected by the particular location and type of water. Growing a plot of seaweed or other organic marine growth in the cockpit is completely undesirable, but this may not occur in every locale.

My 2016 130SS with the 40HP Merc lets a LOT of water in when the drain plug is pulled out. I have two 6.5 gallon tanks and swivel seats mounted that add extra weight, so I would never do it, anyways. Our boats are kept at anchor in Lake Huron for no more than two weeks at a time and used every day, so running the boat dry is never a concern—unless it's raining, of course.

All of your observations are accurate. The problem that I have noticed is that once the interior water level is developed, the boat will develop a discolation where the water accumulates. I place 6 or 7 gallons of water in the cooler seat, pull the plug and no more problem. This is my third 13 footer and it is great not to worry about the battery or bilge pump. Try it.

My 2007 130 SUPER SPORT sits high and dry with the drain plug removed with the current 9.9-HP engine.

I just acquired a 30-HP engine. I am glad I read this before docking with the new engine installed.

I have a 2001 [130 SUPER SPORT] that I just re-powered with a Mercury 40-HP FOURSTROKE, replacing the original Mercury 40-HP two-stroke-power-cycle engine. The battery and fuel tank are in the factory locations.

The boat has gone from a wonderful self-bailing environment to one that now creates a three-foot-diameter one-inch-deep puddle in the boat.

I tried to offset the [static trim being down by the stern with the new engine] by positioning a bucket up forward filled with water, but this did not help.

I plan to install a PVC pipe into the drain which will extend about one-inch above the deck to prevent seawater coming aboard. I would rather have rain water accumulate than the creek water where I keep the boat moored. When using the boat, I will put a cap on the new PVC tube extension.

Dave -

I don't completely disagree with your comments as I too had similar experiences.

Somewhere the world got confused on the word self bailing and self draining

Many owners new to Whalers expect the boat to be totally dry when you pull the plug.