Carver Owners Forum

My wife and I purchased a 1998 Carver 530 Voyager Pilothouse last April. We absolutely love the boat and all the space and styling. It was a sort of project boat that sat idle on blocks at the Skipper Buds marina on Catawba, Island, Ohio for nearly two years. Improvements made: New carpeting throughout interior, new upper helm Infinity carpeting, installed bow thruster this past winter, new Garmin 4212, all 4 new batteries (house and engine) new A/C in VIP suite, new sub-zero freezer in galley, new wipers, new A/C control box in ER, two new battery chargers (20 and 100 AMP), new stern carpeting, new fuel and oil senders, and last but not least, 725 gallons of diesel fuel.

We are now broke and cannot afford to cruise anywhere! Just kidding. The boat yard is always very glad to see us.

This is a great boat. The last issue I have to address is water in the aft bilge area. I always have at least two inches of water that I do not know where it comes from. Does the water in the sink in the galley empty into the area between the two engines? I pumped water out this past weekend that was soapy. My wife had just finished cleaning dishes and I noticed the soapy water. Does anyone know about the water issue and the sink drain?

Thanks for the help. Catawba Tim

Hi Tim and congrats on the 530!. All of the sink, shower and washing machine drains go into a large sum box under the master stateroom floor, and is then pumped overboard by a large capacity bilge pump. I think the capacity of this sump box is around 30 or 40 gallons. The first thing to check would be that the pump is working properly (there is an inspection/access cover accessible through a floor hatch just aft of the bed), and second...make sure the tank is not ruptured in any way

I guess the sink drain hose could be cracked aternatively...it goes through the floor and, I believe, into and through the engine room toward the sump box...

I have a 466 and it has sumps in fwd and aft for all drains (would think it similar...wishing for a 53). as posted previous check there first (might be pretty nasty in there) but could just be a stuck float or as said a cracked/damaged tank. One thing to ponder, the previous owner of my boat ran the Galley sink drain out to a side discharge...I thought that a very good idea especially if you cook alot!

My 506 has a bow and stern sump box. The stern services the bathtub, shower and vanity. The bow sump services the galley and both forward heads and their showers.

The 530, 56V and 570 are unique in that they have one very large sump system that I described above. Don't bother looking for any smaller ones...you won't find them

I have a 2000 Voyager 530 with a similar problem. First, a question - Do you ever see water in the forward bilge area of the ER? Like under the A/C Cooling pump? If you do, then the source is probably the sump tank which is well described by Ramsport47 above. If the bilge pump inside the tank is not working (could be simply dead or might be air bound) or if the float switch inside the tank that activates the pump is not working properly, then the water accumulates inside the tank until it reaches the level of the overflow connection. This is simply an open pipe that connects from the top of the aft end of the tank and discharges overflow water to the forward ER bilge area by the bilge pump in that same area. You should be able to stick your head down in the ER bilge, look forward and see water dripping out of that overflow pipe if the sump tank pump is not working for whatever reason.

If you don't see water coming from that pipe then you may have a fitting on the aft end of the tank that is leaking. That is the situation I had. The discharge from the sump pump itself goes through the aft wall of the tank then takes a turn to port. On my boat it was the thru-tank fitting that was leaking into the bilge. The water finds its way through the hole in the stringer that separates the ER bilge area from the bilge area in the master SR. You must take the forward ER bilge pump loose and hold it up to see this hole.

Let me know what your investigation finds and I will elaborate on what you need to do if it turns out to be a leak from one of the sump tank fittings.

Which bow thruster did you install?