Pumping water out of the ballast

Kermit

.
Jul 31, 2010
5,657
AquaCat 12.5 17342 Wateree Lake, SC
The ramp makes a HUGE difference in retrieving your boat. I went from the worst ramp in the world to what has to be one of the best. Even on our great ramp I have to submerge the tailpipe with the motor running. I’m considering using an extreme drop hitch which would lower the bow roller which should give me a few extra inches before the boat binds.

And listen to Dave. Heed his advice. And become friends with him. Did I mention that you should listen to him and heed his advice?
 
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Sep 22, 2017
20
Macgregor, Hunter 26S, 23 Wing Keel SF Bay
I found a small water pump at Home Depot for $10. The beautiful part? It is powered by a drill which, in my application, is a cordless drill. It can move a good quantity of water in short order. Great for clearing bilges and, no doubt, water ballast tanks. The same battery that powers the drill also powers the large flash light and Sawzall packaged with the drill. Inspired by possibility I am making a cordless drill driven propulsion unit by adding a prop to one end of a defunct weed eater and grabbing onto the flexible drive cable at the other with the drill chuck. If that works for kicking my boat in and out of the harbor that may be the third application of that cordless drill....beyond the usual screwing around. It is important to know water and Lithium Ion do not make a good combination so care must be taken.
 
Dec 2, 2003
751
Hunter 260 winnipeg, Manitoba
I would look for something other than a drill powered pump. They are only rated for about 200gph - so about 1 hr to fully drain the ballast. You really don’t want to move the boat with a partially filled ballast tank - the shift in ballast can help to cause a capsize. -also in looking at some of the battery powered drills/pumps you will use at least one 5ah battery Per hour - those are the bigger/more expensive batteries from Dewalt or Milwaukee - 130$ or so each In the US.
 
Sep 22, 2017
20
Macgregor, Hunter 26S, 23 Wing Keel SF Bay
SFKjeld and others were looking for ways to remove some ballast to float the boat higher making retrieval onto the trailer easier. If you have 200 gallons of water in your bilge you are going to need a "bucket list" and maybe the portable genset mentioned as a possibility for powering a sump pump. My simple solution for removing water from the bilge works for me. I presume most people already have a cordless drill. They are cheap and usually come with two batteries and sometimes other devices like a powerful flash light. This I find useful for checking navigation marker numbers or the windex when sailing at night. For ten bucks I make that cordless drill even more useful and you can too. I am not advocating using a drill pump to empty the ballast tank but water in the bilge or in a ballast tank can be transferred using this simple pump in a cordless drill chuck.

And about emptying the ballast tank on these water ballast boats; the prohibition from the manufacturer is in attempting to move the boat under sail or power without ballast. Granted these unballasted boats are tender but tied to the dock it is not going to tip over. If they were so inherently unstable it would be necessary to add water prior to launching. These boats are launched empty then fill up with water. Why would blowing the ballast, in the exact same location it was taken on, be more unstable? Partially blowing the ballast prior to retrieving the boat makes good sense if the ramp is steep. You can also make retrieving the boat easier by removing the rudder assembly, motor, fuel and battery from the transom area and placing them in the center of the boat (or better yet into your truck). Of course you want to do all that prior to blowing the ballast.

It is the angle of the ramp relative to the way the boat floats in the water that makes it hard to retrieve in some places. Getting the weight out of the stern and blowing the ballast means the boat can be retrieved with the trailer at nearly the same point it was launched. The stern is the first to enter the water when launching and the last to leave when retrieving. When launching, the water supports all that weight in the stern and eventually the boat nose floats free as you back into deeper water. Reversing the process you pull the boat up the ramp and the nose is the first contact with the trailer. Visualize it from the fish eye lense and you can see the angle of the boat relative to the ramp is altered the further forward you pull the boat. The bow lifts and the stern sinks but the trailer is still at the same angle. When the stern contacts the trailer and you pull the boat out you find the vessel is a bit further back on the trailer than when you launched. Hence the parking lot bump. Reducing weight in the stern prior to retrieval will help maintain a better angle relative to the trailer. Blowing some or all of the ballast can help the retrieval process. The boat floats off the trailer, unballasted, at a shallower point on the ramp than can be achieved with the ballast (and weight of fuel, motor and rudder) in the stern at retrieval.

Until someone suggests a better way of moving a quantity of water, driving screws, drilling a hole, cutting through metal in an emergency (a cutting wheel in the drill to sever a shroud if dismasted) powering a winch, illuminating nav markers or checking the windex while sailing at night and possibly a means of propulsion, all with the same light weight tool, a couple of batteries and equally light weight attachments, I will continue to use what I have and hopefully discover other uses as well. I see there is already a much improved version of my repurposed weed eater outboard motor. As we are prohibited from posting items for sale here, try searching for a drill powered propeller. Wal-Mart has one for about $30. I will give it a try and post my findings.
 
Jun 8, 2004
10,024
-na -NA Anywhere USA
Kermit is right but even in the worst of things regarding ramps, I never lightened the ballast until it was on the trailer. There are ways but first open up the ballast tank because once the nose or bow of the boat is on the trailer, water is already draining.
 

Kermit

.
Jul 31, 2010
5,657
AquaCat 12.5 17342 Wateree Lake, SC
Kermit is right but even in the worst of things regarding ramps, I never lightened the ballast until it was on the trailer. There are ways but first open up the ballast tank because once the nose or bow of the boat is on the trailer, water is already draining.
At the very least loosen the valve a good bit. The weight of the water can make the valve almost impossible to open.
 
Jun 8, 2004
10,024
-na -NA Anywhere USA
adding the weight of a green frog like Kermit also helps. How much does that frog weigh well lets leave that open for debate. Just kidding frogman.