This is probably a dumb question, but I never see it discussed.
Almost every boat I see has a bit of water in the bilge, all the time (trailer boats perhaps excluded). Mine included. I'm not even quite sure where it comes from. Every few weeks I get in my tender (ok, it's a jet ski) and go behind the lift and drain it. Rain or wash water I hope, no obvious other sources (the cockpit is self bailing, and experimentation shows it to work well during wash jobs, but vents on the side would go straight in). But that's not so much by question.
My question is whether it matters?
Does the moisture from a quart or so of water sloshing around matter?
Does the added humidity make corrosion more likely?
Does the bit of water sitting in the same spot eventually leak through the paint and saturate that part of the hull? It's WAY back under the engine, not a prayer of reaching it to over-paint or even look.
More importantly - do you do anything about it? If so what? Keep some kind of absorbant device and swap it out regularly?
PS. Note I'm talking far less than reaches the bilge pump, literally 1-2 quarts in a 26' cruiser.
Almost every boat I see has a bit of water in the bilge, all the time (trailer boats perhaps excluded). Mine included. I'm not even quite sure where it comes from. Every few weeks I get in my tender (ok, it's a jet ski) and go behind the lift and drain it. Rain or wash water I hope, no obvious other sources (the cockpit is self bailing, and experimentation shows it to work well during wash jobs, but vents on the side would go straight in). But that's not so much by question.
My question is whether it matters?
Does the moisture from a quart or so of water sloshing around matter?
Does the added humidity make corrosion more likely?
Does the bit of water sitting in the same spot eventually leak through the paint and saturate that part of the hull? It's WAY back under the engine, not a prayer of reaching it to over-paint or even look.
More importantly - do you do anything about it? If so what? Keep some kind of absorbant device and swap it out regularly?
PS. Note I'm talking far less than reaches the bilge pump, literally 1-2 quarts in a 26' cruiser.