drilling holes in ski locker floor?
 

03 LSV

well my ski locker ballast drain pump quit working yesterday. thats what started this all.

my ski locker has always been nasty always damp and everything is covered in an oily gunk so i suspect its always been that way.
well while trying to work on the pump i notice there was about 2" of standing water in the ski locker under the sack.
there appears to be a drain hole at the back of the ski locker. white, and about 1/2" diameter. then it steps down to about 1/4" at the end of it. i cant really see but then it appears to maybe go down to nothing. ie no hole. i tried jaming a 1/4" stick down it thinking maybe it was cloged. but it appears to just bottom out.

anyway the water is obviouly not draining out of it. is the ski locker above the level of the bilge? if i drill holes in the floor will it drain to the bilge and be pumped out? im sick of the standing water and the gooey oily mess in there.

help!

I'm doing the same mod this winter. Should be pretty easy.

You current drain leads to the front of the fuel tank. I wonder if it slid forward a little and choked off the drain hole?

same issue.. watching to see your findings. I'm sick of cleaning nasty moldy ballast bags

I hate that standing water also. I have an 07' Moomba LSV. When i am at the Launch ramp, cleaning the boat, I always pull the plug and let all the water drain out. Why that water never comes out is beyand me. I thought that it might be clogged with crap. I put im a high presure water hose to blow the clog free. Since there was nothing blocking, I just use a wet/dry shop vac to suck the remaining water. Kind of a PIA but its better than the slimy mess.

My '03 vlx has a plug/drain in the front locker through the hull. The bottom of the locker on that boat is the bottom of the boat. It also has the through hole to the rear bilge, but gets clogged a lot with the gunk you mentioned. Thought the drain through the hull was standard, maybe not. So, I have two drains, one in the ski locker and one under the engine.

It does not however prevent the mold/mildew. My front bag desperately needs to be pulled out and cleaned, and I think it has a small leak as well, as I didn't get it completely empty the other night and forgot to pull the plug. It is pretty nasty up there and needs a good powerwash too. Good project for this week.

Sorry, assumed malibu lsv....maybe Moomba??

Sorry I assumed Malibu LSV, Maybe my comments don't apply...

This is the reason I will be getting black ballast bags

well after pages and pages of research it appears this is a common problem with the moomba. and unfortunatly no one had a remidy.
most were simply living with it or removing the bag and wet-vacing it every time.
the reason it never drains out even if you remove the hull plug. the center/front of the boat is actually lower than the rear hull drain plug. so unless you go up a mountain with the plug out of the hull for and continue upwards for 5-10 minutes, it will never be able to drain.

some were actually puting a stoper in the rear ski locker drain to prevent bilge water from entering. but some can still get in the front of the ski locker, as it is not sealed off from the hull. its just open at the front end.

drilling holes may actually make the problem worse. allowing more bilge water to enter the skilocker.

for now im going to vac the water out , replace the pump, and continue enjoying the boat. the gunk was there when i bought the boat, and no one has a fix after all these years.

i tried. one tip i did pick up was to squirt alot of dawn soap in your bilge. as the water sloshes around it cleans the entire inner hull, removes all the gunk and oil build up and its pumped out with the bildge water. cool tip. told my old man, and he said yeah, they used to throw a bar of ivory soap in the builge all the time. the dawn should do better at oil/gunk cleaning though.

Yep our 05 ssv does the same thing. The hole in the ski locker does go all the way through on ours. I use to use the wet vac to get the little bit of water out. I now remove the drain plug at the ramp. When no one is loading/unloading I back the boat down the ramp and let the water drain out. It only takes a couple minutes. Works out better then getting the shop vac in and out of the boat. If you have oily gunk stuff in the bilge/ski locker you might have a small oil leak some where. My v-drive out put seal was leaking on mine(very small leak) and left an oily film gunk build up in the bilge/ski locker.

update. well tonight i got the new pump and started to get her back running
i start by wet vacing out the ski locker. get it empty, and ill be damned water is just rushing in from the "drain" hole at the back of the ski locker. the level of water in the ski locker must have been level with the bilge, so when i lowered the ski locker level, the bilge water came rushing in!
i fought this for 30 minutes and sucked out 15 gallons before water quit coming in!
i definatly plan to clean out the ski locker and then plug the drain permenetly.

unfortunatly though when water gets in it will have no way to get out, but at least it will be clean rain or lake water, and not oily bilge water.

Perhaps if you built a grate to effectively raise the sole of the locker it would lessen the mildew issue. I am thinking of a box joint grate like you seen a shower stall on a yacht only of plastic in lieu of teak. It would still drain on the trailer ride home and allow for air flow to lessen mildew.

Just thinking out loud..

Cory, the Moombas center locker is the lowest part of the boat so the bilge will drain into it. You can remove the floor via some well hidden screws in the floor carpet. Best results have been to power wash the bilge area and then use alot...I mean alot of Simple Green or even some Dawn dishsoap (not as much as the Simple Green) and pour it in the bilge and fill some water in there and let it slosh around. The dealers are draining the boats by lifting the ball of the trailer with a forklift until the trailer basically hits the prop guard. Guys on the Moomba forum report that if you do the Dawn or Simple Green a few times a year the slime doesn't build up and it's pretty much just water. However, you got to have a fairly clean bilge first so you're on the right track. You know me, but I remove my center sac and shop vac the center locker everyday my boat touches the lake so my center is clean clean clean.

The best thing I found to clean the bilge is powdered dishwasher detergent(Cascade). That and some hot water, if you can do it.

I use Starbrite Sea Safe Bilge cleaner to keep my boat shiny and fresh smelling. (insert jingle here) :)

Hey guys, I've got a Malibu that had the same issue. There was a drain leading to the bilge, but the ski locker is the lowest point when the boat is on the trailer. I put in a T-handle drain plug through the bottom of the boat - lots of the newer boats have them from the factory. Problem solved.