Hello all, first time poster long time lurker. Anyway I recently purchased my first fiberglass boat a 1980 Hydrasports 168SX, has a 1987 Johnson 110 and a 1992 motorguide trolling motor. As a disabled vet I didn't want to put a lot of money into a boat until I knew it was something that I could enjoy, without causing any additional pain. Anyway I got the boat for 800 bucks which I thought was a good deal, all the wood has been replaced including the stringers and transom, roughly 2-3 years ago. The hull is in good condition, the intake and discharge lines on the livewell are pretty old. Anyway after getting the boat I have repainted it and got the cosmetics acceptable, replaced the seats and stuff like that. Put in the water for the first time last weekend and all went well for about 2 hours, no leaks, ran great etc. I decided to test the reverse and while underway at idle I reversed the engine and traveled about 50 yds or so, after this the hull was full of water. I am assuming the water came in the discharge line for the livewell, it is blown and the fitting itself leaks. FWIW when I took it out of the lake all of the water stayed inside the hull, none of it leaked out!! This one thing has me really confused, I mean if there was a hole the water should have run back out, as it was I needed to remove the plug and drain the boat that way, took about 15 minutes. Is there anything else besides the livewell lines and fittings that I need to look for? The transom seems to be solid with no worrisome cracks, there is one at the top where the wood was replaced, nothing along the side or bottom. I guess there could be a hole under the trailer wood and will check that when I put it back in the water, hopefully tomorrow. FWIW I was in the Coast Guard for 7 years and ran boats as my full time job while on active duty (that is how I broke my back), but this leak has me sorta puzzled. When I put the boat in reverse I didn't think I gunned the engine enough to bury the transom and let the water over the side into the bilge, but I am not ruling that out. Let me know if anyone has any ideas. Thanks

Until I got to the end of your post, that was my first thought.  When going backwards if you go too fast, or the water is rough enough, then water will come in over the back.

I'm definitely not ruling that possibilty out!!!

Welcome aboard!

My bet is the water came over the transom.

8-)

Sometimes when I stop without slowing down it comes in a little.

How do you stop without slowind down? ;D ;D .

All the other things that might leak would just sitting at a dock, livewell hose, over flow for livewell, bilge ect.

So tester out again, that water will run up on the back deck I've even drowned myself.

Garnet

I'll be testing her out again asap.  the weather is changing around some, so I'm having some pain, as soon as it dies down I'm heading for the lake again.  Thanks for the advice fellas.

WELCOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hope it's nothing serious.

Hope everything is ok with the boat.

Don't put it in reverse and maybe it will solve the problem. LOL. I think it is water over the transom.

here is a couple of pics of the pig that leaks from nowhere.  

b4

After

Boy does that boat bring back memorys, sorry to say bad back memorys.

Stratos had the same boat and it will crush the rest of your back. Just drive slow and have fun. They were terrible for waves splashing over them when you shut down. Once the boat sits on the water start adding throttle to beat the back wash.

Garnet

Those old Hydra Sports were sorta known to sit stern low in the water.  Make sure you have a automatic bilge pump or auto bilge pump switch installed.  

Took the boat out today, no leaks.  Operator error, letting the wake wave over the transom  :-[