Water in the hull

On my last outing I was a bit discouraged when I went to get my lunch from the front hatch of my OK Big Game Prowler and found it sitting in about a 1/2 inch of water.  I'm wondering if there are any theories as to where my water is coming from because I am none to pleased to have a soggy sandwich on the lake!

My first several trips on the BG have been during sunny weather and I have had no water issues.  The other day I was out in a light rain for about 3 hours before opening the hatch.  My guess is the water is either coming in through the Scotty flush mount rod holder with a rod holder in it or through the newly installed fish finder wires.  I used the rubber stopper technique shown on Hook 1 to install the wires but I did not Goop the install afterward.  The only other newly created holes by me are two other Scotty rod holders but they are not flush mount and I have Gooped the hardware.

I had a total of about 1 cup of water in the hull after 4 hours of fishing.  Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Hi Blunight,
Sounds like you get to do a water test with the hose.  As I see it there are 2 ways you can accomplish this:  1. You can use a hose and spray water on the boat at several different places, one place at a time.
Check the hull for water-tightness after spraying each place.
The 2nd way is to set the yak on a sheet of plywood on saw horses, don't just use saw horses without the plywood or boards between to support the load.  Then fill the yak with water through the drain plug.
After full, you should see where the water is leaking out, plug those holes.  You might have to turn the Yak over on it's top to see the water is leaking out.
Hope this helps.

I would not fill it!
 A couple of inches should be enough to find the hole. You just need to  rotate the boat and keep an eye out at seams and SCUPPERS.
 I think filling the boat would warp the hull.
 Good luck

I would not fill it!
 A couple of inches should be enough to find the hole. You just need to  rotate the boat and keep an eye out at seams and SCUPPERS.
 I think filling the boat would warp the hull.
 Good luck

What box of rain said! Filling it up would not only be supremely heavy but would most definitely damage your yak. A little water should work ok. Also you might put some food coloring in the water once it's inside the yak to help you see where the leak is coming from.  And a cup of water after 4 hours is dead wrong. I'm guessing that there's a leak somewhere in the bottom of the hull. even with rain I think to get that much water in is almost impossible without having a gaping hole in it.

Let us know how it goes.

Z

You might try putting GOOP on top of everywhere there is a screw head or rivet. I was getting the same thing in my P15. I did the GOOP like I said and now there is zero water inside.
It is best to start with the easy fixes and work from there.

Thank you all for the input.  I think I'm with Tote on this one for now.  I Gooped everything and I'll be hitting Silver Lake again on Thursday so I will be keeping a closer eye on the hull for leakage while I'm out.  The other thing I thought of last night is I did drive up to Silver Lake (1 hour drive on I-5 with speeds of about 65) with the yak exposed in the back of the pickup and it was raining.  I'm thinking there was some good opportunity for water to get pushed into lots of little spots during the transport as well.

I will report back on my issues.

I am pleased to announce that my lunch did not get wet today during my Silver Lake outing!  I am going with the theory that the drive up in the rain coupled with the 4 hours of fishing in the rain resulted in the water finding its way in from the top and not from the bottom on my last wet hull report.

Silver Lake was decent to me today.  Hooked up with three LM bass all in the 1-2 lb category and about 4 crappie.... oh yeah and one catfish!  Strange what you catch while eating your lunch and letting a jig bounce along near the bottom. 

Needless to say I am very happy my new boat is not leaking from the bottom.  Although I did run into a fairly sizable rock today.  Silver Lake hides things very well.  I was in about three feet of water just paddling along and WHAM!  No major damage I was just surprised it was that close to the surface and I couln't see it.  I heard a boat smacked a few hours later while I was across the lake.  I guess I should have marked it!