Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your boat!

[jrowan]

Just a reminder to check your bilge pump & close your thru hull valves before you leave your boat. This boat owner at our marina didn't. Actually, after talking to the owner, he knew his bilge pump wasn't working right & didn't fix it. So his boat & his wallet will now suffer for it. Luckily he did have Boat US insurance. But after talking to the salvage company, it will probably cost around 10 grand to float this boat on air bags, pump it, tow it & haul it out.
Likely a totalled sailboat. I felt bad for the owner. Its a sad sight, but completely preventable. I kind of wondered if this neglect was intentional, but I don't think the insurace company is going to give you much for boat that's been sunk, unless you have an agreed upon value. Guess we're all one bad leak away from witnessing this.

 

[jviss]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

I'm not following your comment that it's "completely preventable." You never said what caused this boat to sink. Was it a broken hose on an open seacock?

 

[Merlin Clark]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

Not to worry, other policy holders will pay for the owners poor maintenance and slack attitude.
Cha-ching!

 

[dlewis812]

engine seacock

do most of you close your engine water intake everytime? i don't but perhaps i should??

 

[Maine Sail]

do most of you close your engine water intake everytime? i don't but perhaps i should??

Every seacock on our boat, except for the cockpit scuppers, is closed every time we leave the boat... We also have new below water hose every 4-5 years (none of it ever a PVC) and double clamps using only AWAB non-perforated hose clamps..


It is a good time to check your policy because on many policies the "salvage costs" are deducted from the agreed value of the vessel. Salvage costs can very easily exceed the agreed value and you can easily wind up getting NOTHING for your vessel......


Just from the photo it is evident that vessel was not well cared for....

 

[Stu Jackson]

do most of you close your engine water intake everytime? i don't but perhaps i should??

The difficulty I have with the question is that it begs this one:

What's your boat worth to you if you can't spend a few minutes, at most, to do so?

And if your thru hulls are in hard to reach places, go move 'em.

 

[wufibugs]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

Stu makes an interesting point. My seawater seacock is below the aft berth. Always go through the ritual of moving stuff off that little used berth, lifting the cushion, lifting the cover, closing the seacock, and putting the stuff back [I like to pretend the stuff is in its rightful place] before I leave the boat. I now wonder about installing a second shut off valve in the engine compartment, which is much easier to reach. Same concept with other discharge hoses. Has anyone actually done this?

 

[Nom De Guerre]

Stu makes an interesting point. My seawater seacock is below the aft berth. Always go through the ritual of moving stuff off that little used berth, lifting the cushion, lifting the cover, closing the seacock, and putting the stuff back before I leave the boat. I now wonder about installing a second shut off valve in the engine compartment, which is much easier to reach. Same concept with other discharge hoses. Has anyone actually done this?

I have a similar ritual, and, I hang the starter key on the valve handle so that I can't forget to do it.

I consider it 1 less minute that I have to spend finding other ways to exercise - no big deal.

 

[jviss]

...using only AWAB non-perforated hose clamps..

When we first got our boat, after the survey the insurance company insisted on double-clamping everything. I did, but I thought this was excessive until a couple of years ago I found one of those perforated worm clamps just sitting in the bilge, having broken and fallen off the hose connecting the propeller stuffing box to the fiberglass tube.

Maine, aren't there better clamps than the AWAB, meaning, fixed-diameter clamps that are not worm drive?

Thanks,

jv

 

[Stu Jackson]

I now wonder about installing a second shut off valve in the engine compartment, which is much easier to reach. Same concept with other discharge hoses. Has anyone actually done this?

On the surface, it seems like a good idea, if you double or triple clamp the extension hose (sometimes barbs don't have room for more than two clamps).

Downside? The original thru hull never gets closed and can lock open, so in the event of WHEN, not if you have the replace the extension hose, you're sol.

The proper solution is to move the thru hull so you can get to it easily, like most boats, and curse the builder for his stupidity in locating them where you can't reach them.

 

[wufibugs]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

Good point, Stu. Based on its location, one might assume Hunter never thought it necessary to shut the raw water valve. It is, of course, built exactly as Mainsail warns against so that opening and closing it invites torqueing the whole assembly until it breaks. I will have to look to see if one could put an elbow on it and create a small recess or compartment in the sidewall below the berth into which the valve could be mounted and securely bolted. Accessible but out of harms way.

 

[redhead78]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

If u leave the engine thru hull intake open you are only as watertight as the hoses and clamps in your cooling system. Red

 

[foolproof]

When I renovated my boat, one of the best things I did was to replace the old gate valves with Marleon (sp?) valves, and got rid of a couple of redundant holes.

One of the most believable horrors I heard about was the old style fittings literally popping out. They were simply pipe nipples 'glassed to the hull. If the 'glass job was to fail, and they occasionally did, you have a big hole in the boat with no way to close it (except for a plug, IF you're even there to know about it).

The new fittings are mushroom style that are installed from outside the boat, and they have a nut on the inside to hold the whole thing in. A much better design, and a lot less likely to fail.

I also have a ritual of closing my three (that's right, just three) valves before I leave the boat. I also check the float switch every trip as well...it actually got hung up on a loose piece of wiring in the bilge and wouldn't float! I also turn on the pump to make sure it works as well.

All of this gives me peace of mind.

 

[sailor832]

While I agree with everything said here I still wonder how this can happen without the owner being informed it is not likely that this boat sunk over night most likely people watched this happen

 

[Stu Jackson]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

We had an S2 center cockpit start sinking in our marina a few years ago. Happened during daylight. The boats surrounding this unfortunate vessel did not have occupants. Someone walking down the dock noticed it, called in a few friends and ran (their own) lines underneath the bow, stern and midships to the dock cleats and saved the boat from going completely down.

If it had happened at night, which it most certainly could have, it'd have been a goner.

Who knows when it started sinking?

 

[Dalliance]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

That is a sad sight. Seems like a case of neglect IMHO.

Unless my engine is running, the raw water seacock is closed and the key hung on the lever. Even when I'm on the boat for the night. The other three seacocks are routinely closed when I leave the boat for the week. All are easy enough to reach and if they weren't, I would move them.

Additionally, I have a back-up bilge pump with it's float switch higher in the bilge and a bilge pump counter wired to the primary bilge pump so it can't mask a problem. Some may think that's a little obsessive, but it helps me sleep better.

 

[Merlin Clark]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

A second bilge pump isn't obsessive, it's good seamanship.

 

[Merlin Clark]

While I agree with everything said here I still wonder how this can happen without the owner being informed it is not likely that this boat sunk over night most likely people watched this happen

An inch and a half hose lets go and he would have 10s of gallons per minute flooding the boat. Wouldn't take long, not more than a few hours to sink it.
The owner admitted to having bilge pump problems.

 

[jrowan]

Re: Reminder to check your bilge pump before U leave your bo

Sorry I've been busy at work & couldn't answer any questions, of which I knew there would be some. The owner of the boat was informed recently that his boat had started taking on water. He had pumped this boat out before due to it taking on water. That's why I don't understand why he didn't fix the problem properly, or haul the boat out while he had a chance. I suspect that the engine wasn't running. It has been sitting in this slip for years with little or no maintenance. The boat actually has had some maintenance at some point, as it had a newer solar panel & self tailing winches installed.
I do feel that the owner was given notice about his boat taking on water, & obviously didn't do enough to correct the leak, & didn't even replace his bad bilge pump.
So he got what was coming. That's why I started to wonder if the neglect was intentional, to get insurance money.

But honestly the point isn't really just this boat in particular. The real point is that we are all just one bad leak away from being sunk in the slip ourselves. Boats on a mooring or even more at risk. That's why I always close ALL thru hull valves, & check my bilge pump on a regular basis.