How wet should I expect the bilge to be

Welcome to Yacht Forums (YF).

It is amazing how much water can pool up from a few drips.
Fix your shaft logs / stuffing boxes.
Check out your rudder post also.

Turn all pressure water off.
You can read from YF past accounts of potable water leaks adding up also.
Especially in Carvers.

Could it be A/C condensate?
I'm just south of you so I'm sure your not running ACs today.

Odors? Black water leak of supply water to a head?

Shower sump and sump overboard discharge hose?

And of course, rain water. We have been getting a bunch.
Even under a covered slip, rain can still blow in.
Lots of rain water come in our boat thru the anchor rode deck passage.
I'm repairing bad wood around a window now also from another rain water leak.

In an ideal world a dry bilge is desirable. Reality sometimes sux.
The amount of wet is up to you, efforts and money.

Consider a low pick-up bilge pump. Not a replacement but in addition to your existing pumps.

It is a boat though, a lil water may always be in your boat.
As long as it does not go stale and offer odors, IMO, it's nothing to loose sleep about.
Our 46 year old Bertram has wet bilges. I sleep well.

Keep us up on what you find.

You in Ortega??

Which bilge? Not familiar with your specific boat but there should be at least 2 or 3 separate bilge compartments: forward, engine room and lazarette. On some smaller boats with Vee drives and the engines aft, there will not be a lazarette

these bilges should be isolated from each other since you don’t want any oil or fuel from the ER to contaminate the others.

No, yes, and yes.

Latter is often an aspiration, and it may take you a while to track down and fix each water source... but over time, a dry bilge a useful diagnostic tool.

-Chris

That used to be Ortega River Boat Yard (ORBY) till they sold and the condo and new docks were built.
Thru several owners till these M32 pukes.
I used to work the Ortega area and retired over 4 years ago.
Was your Carver from around there? I may know or know of her.

Name does not ring a bell.
An aft cabin Carver I remember on the C dock was Escape.
Gas powered dock queen.

It's been a while since the last post, but you have received some good suggestions. I have just joined YF and have a 95 Carver 355 aft cabin, which is essentially their 36' aft cabin on a 40' hull. The one I have does have three separate bilge compartments. The forward and aft are always bone dry. The center bilge should see only a very small amount of water. That section is also most likely where a leak is located: thru-hull water intakes, water hoses, drive shafts and exhaust hoses, etc. The fact that you are taking on that much water every few days suggests a continuous leak coming from one of the thru-hull connectors supplying the head(s), HVAC, or the engines. After installing your bilge pump get things as dry as possible and begin looking for leaking hoses, etc. You should also check your three bilge pumps to make sure they are operational. Mine had float valves that were not activating. I ended up replacing the entire units. If you are running the HVAC system, there is a pump that may need to be on to remove condensate water. Condensate will collect in the bilge if the pump is not on. On mine, there are two light switches located together next to the main HVAC control in the salon. One has a small green indicator light below the switch. That one is for the HVAC pump and needs to be on when running AC. Hope that helps.

I had a wet forward bilge, some water from heavy rains and some from the AC dripping condensation.
Can’t stand stagnant water and smelly bilges so I used a hand pump for a while, then installed a small 12 volt “sump-pump” plumbed into an existing through hull and an ON/OFF switch in the head.
Used a 3/8” clear hose with a piece on nylon bug screen on the suction side to prevent gunk getting in the pump.
It worked really well, dry bilges On Demand.
The little Amazon pump was surprisingly sturdy and kept running dry for 10 hours when I forgot to turn it of one day.
Had a spare on the boat, just in case..

That looks like a good deal for a diaphragm pump. Did that one come with clips to connect to a battery or any tubing? Noticed it comes with the clamps.

Nah, no clips, hardwire it to the panel over a breaker, or to the batteries with a fuse.
Clips are not good on a boat that moves and vibrates, clips be gone and maybe making a short.
Get used to running wires if you are new to this hobby.

Good to hear you have resolved your issues! C.P.