Mike C wrote:
I have a 1998 2400 SCR Maxum and my carpet is wet in the cabin. I
emptied all the water from the water holding tank (to make sure it
hasn't a leaky faucet or connection) and put a fan on it. A week later,
still wet. My bilge pump near the area is working fine. I notice when
I walk on the carpet, water swishes into the bilge compartment. The
floor also seems to have more give than I ever remember.

I think I have some sort of crack under the carpeted area. My question
is should I pull up the carpet and look or is this something I should
call somebody in for? I'll add there are really no boat dealers
anywhere close to where I am.

Doesn't the carpet just snap in on that model? If so, get it out of the
boat and dry it out.

Your biggest potential problem isn't the wet carpet, but the source of
the water that is soaking the carpet. If you have no water in the
potable water tank, you can eliminate that potential source. Drain your
hot water tank if you have one (with the power off, of course) as well.
If your boat has a head plumbed through the hull, make sure that is
empty too. I would suggest shutting off all your through hulls below
the waterline as the next step, (but remember to open those needed for
engine cooling before ever starting the engine again). With any luck,
shutting the through hulls will stop the ingress of water. Your most
likely failure is at a through hull or at the outdrive boot. The
through hull would be easier to fix. If you continue to take on water
after shutting off the through hulls, it is either the outdrive boot or
(much less likely unless you've wacked someting pretty hard) a crack in
the hull itself.

Another very remote possiblity would be the failure of something as
critical as the hull to deck joint.

Normally one would put a structural failure of the hull way down the
list of possibilities, but in your case the fact that you think you
detect a difference in the "feel" of the floorboards should make it
more of a priority.

If shutting off the through hulls corrects the ingress of water, open
them one at a time and watch very carefully for any water. If you don't
see any water and if you're not taking on any water within an hour of
so after opening one through hull, shut it back off and then open the
others, one at a time and in sequence until you find the problem. One
important consideration is this: If you do find a leaky through hull,
fix that but continue testing the rest of them. Nothing says that you
can only have a single leaky through hull at any one time.

If the source of the water isn't almost immediately detectable and
easily repairable, you will want to get some professsional help. Your
boat isn't going to "heal" if you simply let it rest, and often times
problems like you're describing can be early warnings of a looming
catastrophe. Better safe than sorry. In fact, there's no substitute for
safe and no remedy for sorry.