Element - Water in sponsons? Help!

[jairid]

I just purchased a 2018 E16 used with the 60HP Merc. I intend to remove the 60 and put a 90hp on the boat right away. I kind of bought the boat knowing i would be upgrading the engine. I have read through the water in sponsons thread and i decided tonight I have nothing to lose by drilling a couple of holes in the sponsons. I just got back from drilling the holes and sure enough water in both port and starboard sponsons. I am going to have the dealer install the garboard plugs when they re and re the new engine. It didnt seem to be a ton of water but definitely there maybe a gallon per side and that is after the boat has been left on a boat lift in rainy Vancouver BC for 2 years. I plan to reseal the transom/bilge pump penetrations and any penetrations in the fuel tank compartment and hope that will at least slow any future ingress.

[jairid]

I realize I will be voiding the warranty by adding the 90hp its a chance I'm willing to take.

[6104696]

Have you checked your insurance policy to make sure that they will cover you if you exceed the rated HP? Also your local laws? I think in Florida or one of the southern states there is a law or reg that states that it is illegal to exceed manufacturer's rated HP on boats less than 20 feet long......

W/R/T your warranty, you won't "void" it completely, but you won't be covered for any hull failures that occur as a result (direct or indirect) of the added power (or as a result of your drilling holes). Of course that gives Brunswick a lot of "outs" if your hull starts to come apart, or if you have transom rot.......

[jairid]

Good point on the insurance something to consider for sure. W/R/T the hull warranty I doubt I would make a claim anyway as the dealer is pretty far away and Im fairly handy around boats so would likely just tackle any repairs myself. The hassle associated with dealing with Brunswick on a warranty claim gives me anxiety just thinking about it. I think the hull will hold up fine as long as I am diligent about draining any water in future and seal any possible points of ingress. I plan to keep the boat covered moving forward so this should really help at least with rainwater.

[green650]

I just purchased a 2018 E16 used with the 60HP Merc. I intend to remove the 60 and put a 90hp on the boat right away. I kind of bought the boat knowing i would be upgrading the engine. I have read through the water in sponsons thread and i decided tonight I have nothing to lose by drilling a couple of holes in the sponsons. I just got back from drilling the holes and sure enough water in both port and starboard sponsons. I am going to have the dealer install the garboard plugs when they re and re the new engine. It didnt seem to be a ton of water but definitely there maybe a gallon per side and that is after the boat has been left on a boat lift in rainy Vancouver BC for 2 years. I plan to reseal the transom/bilge pump penetrations and any penetrations in the fuel tank compartment and hope that will at least slow any future ingress.

Did you buy it from the original owner? I think it is only transferable once, and it doesn’t appear like it automatically transfers. I wouldn’t worry though, it doesn't cover much anyway, and 15hp is not going to blow your transom off.

[CparkerE16]

Another thing to consider is that going from a 60hp to a 90hp adds over 100 pounds to the back of the boat. I believe the 75hp and 90hp have the same weight, but the 60hp is over a hundred pounds lighter than either of them.
I have the 2018 E16 with a 60hp, but I'm on a small lake and it's usually just me and the wife. And we're old so we don't go tubing and skiing and stuff. With the 2 of us the boat does about 32mph (GPS). I'm going to swap out to a 4-blade (13.8 x 13) this year to get a little more punch coming up on plane, so I'll lose a couple mph top end, but ... I don't race it so no big deal.
Now... this is just my opinion, but having owned this boat since new, and after having it on the Niagara River (upper and lower river), and out on Lake Ontario (which tends to "come up" quick), I would heartily recommend that if you need more boat, buy more boat. Trying to force a 16 ft Element to be "more boat" is probably going to be disappointing and expensive. I mean... think about it... if you add the cost of the 90hp to the purchase price of the boat, what could you buy for that total? Plus you're looking at a boat that has had water in the sponsons for who knows how long? Those sponsons are foam filled. That foam will never dry out by drilling in a couple garboard drains. I had the drains installed in mine as well. I watched it being done. Mine were dry, but I launch and recover. The boat has never been in a slip.
If you have any kind of mishap in a boat that has been repowered to exceed the placarded maximum, your insurance company is going to almost surely abandon you.

[6104696]

This weekend I refinished the fuel compartment of my 2017 e18; the "paint" was starting to flake (before and after photos attached, FYI). As part of the project, I removed the fuel tank strap brackets and fuel hose clamps. The screws did not seem long enough to penetrate the two layers of wood at the bottom of the compartment (aka the top of the sponson), but.....guess what? The holes were drilled all the way through.....LOL. The dealer had recaulked all of that a few years ago so I don't know if that was the source of water into the port sponson (I still got a small amount of water in that sponson), but I resealed everything with 4200. I also found some nooks and crannies that "could" have been the source of leakage. Everything has now been sealed and caulked, so we will see in a a month or two whether there is still leakage......

[Waterdowg]

This weekend I refinished the fuel compartment of my 2017 e18; the "paint" was starting to flake (before and after photos attached, FYI). As part of the project, I removed the fuel tank strap brackets and fuel hose clamps. The screws did not seem long enough to penetrate the two layers of wood at the bottom of the compartment (aka the top of the sponson), but.....guess what? The holes were drilled all the way through.....LOL. The dealer had recaulked all of that a few years ago so I don't know if that was the source of water into the port sponson (I still got a small amount of water in that sponson), but I resealed everything with 4200. I also found some nooks and crannies that "could" have been the source of leakage. Everything has now been sealed and caulked, so we will see in a a month or two whether there is still leakage......

That looks really nice super clean and looks better than new. What paint did you use. I have some areas that can use that type of update and refreshing.

[6104696]

That looks really nice super clean and looks better than new. What paint did you use. I have some areas that can use that type of update and refreshing.

I used TotalBilge epoxy bilge paint from TotalBoat. ~$20 or so for a quart, IIRC (I bought it a while ago but had to wait for some warmer weather to heat up the garage). 2 thorough coats in that compartment took about 1/2 to 2/3 of a quart. the hard part of course was the prep work. A lot of scraping and sanding....we'll see how it holds up.

[kenw2w]

I used TotalBilge epoxy bilge paint from TotalBoat. ~$20 or so for a quart, IIRC (I bought it a while ago but had to wait for some warmer weather to heat up the garage). 2 thorough coats in that compartment took about 1/2 to 2/3 of a quart. the hard part of course was the prep work. A lot of scraping and sanding....we'll see how it holds up.

Thanks, this is what i was going to ask as well, it looks great there!

[Dos locos en miami]

check this video on how to install drain plugs in sponsons https://youtu.be/2ead3qgnLoU

[Dos locos en miami]

bayliner is responsable for this problem and it must do a recall for all bayliner elements to be sent to local dealers to add drain plugs on both sponsons free of charge
In my opinion the sponson bellow the gas tank is the most important to fix i found more that 10 gallons of water when i add the plug on my boat the right side had about 1/2 gallon
I discovered this problem when i instaled a new garmin fish finder and deep finder sensor and when i removed the old one it started to drip water for 3 hours

[Dos locos en miami]

BAYLINER ELEMENTS M15 AND M17 HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM

[green650]

check this video on how to install drain plugs in sponsons https://youtu.be/2ead3qgnLoU

Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you missed a critical step when you installed your garboard drains. When you drill the hole thru the hull, you go thru about 1/2” of fiberglass, than the plywood transom, and then another 1/4” of fiberglass. Once you pierce thru th inner hull fiberglass, you expose that plywood transom to the water in the sponsoons. Before I insatalled the drains, I sealed the plywood with epoxy resin thinned with acetone. Thinning it allows the wood to absorb more.
Since yours is not sealed, it is absorbing water and your transom is getting soggy.

[nsteerz]

Just finished this entire thread and have read others like it.

I just acquired a 2021 Element M15 (50hp) about a month ago. While overall I have been fairly pleased for my first boat, the water in the sponson issues does give me some pause. I have experienced some underwhelming performance. With just my wife and I, I can get on plane if she moves to the front. Neither of us a very large (I weight 170 and she's about 110). I've maxed out at 25 mph so far. We took another couple out a couple weekends ago and couldn't get it up on plane, so just had to chug along at 8-10 mph for the day. For what its worth we launch from the intercoastal near Charleston, SC, so not exactly the calmest of seas at times.

What would be some good first steps to take to see if there is water in the sponsons? Has anyone more recently had this fixed by Bayliner? Would it be possible to affect performance this much, or is it possible it is another issue?

I am looking to do the 100 hr service soon but it looks like most vendors are sold out of the kit.

Thanks in advance for any input.

[6104696]

Welcome to the club.

First, some obvious things:

You said you "launch" out of Charleston; so, the boat is not wetslipped and bottom paint or bottom growth is not a consideration? this time of year a lot of wetslipped boats have reduced perfromance due to bottom growth, even if properly bottom-painted.

Do you store the boat outside? Is it covered? Does rainwater accumulate in your fuel tank storage area? (disclaimer; I have an e18 and am not intimately familiar with the M15 layout).

Have you taken out the bilge drain plug and drained the bilge?

Are you fairly sure that your motor is performing properly?

Does the boat list to one side when sitting in the water (it is unlikely that the sponsons would accumulate even amounts of water).

On my e18, I believe that the small amount of water I get in my port sponson is rainwater. But after several months of being outside on a boatlift, usually covered, I only get a few ounces of water in the sponson. Not enough to affect performance.

The only way to determine if you have water in your sponson, absent any fancy ultrasound technology, is to drill a hole. Don't do that. Call your local bayliner dealer and see if they are installing sponson drains under warranty if you/they suspect water in your sponsons. You are never going to get stellar performance with a 50 hp on that boat, but it should get up on plane with two average size adults. I a-s-s-ume that you are not loading the boat up with heavy dive gear or fat-sacs. 25 mph is probably close to Vmax with a moderate load.

If you knew the exact "dry weight" of your package you could weigh it to see if it has gained some water-weight, but you don't know the exact dry weight so that is not an option.

Anyway, assuming that none of the above issues apply (though if you have rainwater in the fuel tank area that tells you nothing, except that maybe some rainwater is seeping in through the screws that support the fuel tank holddowns), and that the dealer is not willing to install sponson drains under warranty, is to pay the dealer to install some or to install some yourself. Installing some yourself pretty much puts you on your own for any subsequent transom rot, though...though not sure if the hull warranty applies to a second owner and not sure if the hull warranty is worth anything anyway.

I had sponson drains installed under warranty in 2017, I drain them (only the port side ever has any water) once or twice per season, and have had no issues or concerns since.

Good luck.