I hit something in water

I drove through a shallow spot yesterday and hit groung. Not a real bad hit but enough to be able to see the the mud that I stirred up.I was going about 30 mph. After that I stopped to make sure everything was ok. I noticed that the bilge pump came on when I stopped and stayed on. I really had a hard time seeing where it was coming from by just raising the engine cover. I have a 20ft Southwind and you have to remove the rear seat and the center piece of the floor behind the engine cover for a good look. The water appeared to be coming from the rudder but I really could not tell. The rudder still works great no binding anywhere. I did notice the wire that goes through the two nuts on the shaft log was broken so that my be where the water was coming from. The prop looked fine but you could tell it had hit something, more scratches but no bends or chunks missing.
I wanted to take the rear seat and floor out after I got it on the trailer but the marina was to busy to tie up their ramp that long. So I just brought it home. Anybody have any ideas as the best way to proceed from here.

Fill the bilge up with water using the garden house. Not too high so water gets in starter or tranny, but high enough so that the shaft and rudder packing is under water. You may have to raise the tongue of the trailer as high as possible to get enough water to cover the rudder packing nut. Then look to see where the water is leaving the boat. Give it a few minutes as the water pressure on the leak points is way less than when the boat is sitting in water.

After further investigation I found out that one of the four screws that hold the grate on the water inlet was missing leaving a small hole in the hull.
I am not sure but I was advised to take all the screws out and replace with machine screws with nuts to be sure this doesn't happen again.
Thanks for your help.

FWIW: Most rudder systems do NOT have safety wiring on the packing nut like the drive shaft packing does. The reason is that the tiller arm will prevent the nut from backing off and the rudder does not have the rotational force trying to unscrew the packing nut.

The tiller arm bolt MAY have safety wiring.

I have a 95 SN, this year model has the safety wire on top of the rudder.

G Stonicher wrote: After further investigation I found out that one of the four screws that hold the grate on the water inlet was missing leaving a small hole in the hull. I am not sure but I was advised to take all the screws out and replace with machine screws with nuts to be sure this doesn't happen again. Thanks for your help.

When you put the new hardware in use 3m 5200 to seal the bolt.

Tim