We just purchased a '77 Venture 25, for $700. It's in pretty alright shape, especially considering the price. I will fully admit this is my first boat of this size, we previously sailed a few times in our Holiday 20, 19ft drop keel sailboat. This deal appeared and we just couldn't pass it up. The seller explained to me there is no drain plug on the rear as the bilge pump just pushes water out. Does that mean the bilge pump needs to be powered at all times? Should I dig into the wiring and figure a way to power the bilge pump (wherever it may be) before doing a float test? Thank you in advance for the help.
1977 Macgregor Venture 25 - Is there a bilge pump from factory?
- Thread starter TakeItEasy25
- Start date
Congratulations, I think.
If it wouldn't be too rude, I'd like to re-phrase your Question. Are you saying that a bilge pump dewaters the bilge and not a drain like on many trailerable boats?
If so, yes the bilge pump needs to be operational all the time the boat is in the water unless you like to bail and are available to bail 24/7.
One question I have is: Is the cockpit self draining. In other words does the cockpit drain rainwater thru scuppers to overboard or does rainwater drain into the bilge. If the latter the boat will sink in a heavy rain without a reliable de-watering system which is usually an electrically driven bilge pump.
So yes you should trace the wiring to understand it and be able to troubleshoot it. And check the battery because many a bilge pump has soldiered on trying a save a boat but if it runs the battery down ... gulg, glug, glug.
A float test under controlled circumstances would be OK as long as you have a bail out plan (Pun not intended). Don't pull the trailer away or keep it in the slings until an inspection of the bilge is done. BTW any decent boatyard wouldn't remove the slings until a check was done.
Regarding the question "Is there a bilge pump from the factory" you can't tell. The boat is 48 years old and had previous owners. You can not assume anything about original equipment or modifications since manufacture.
You bought the boat, now it's yours.
If it wouldn't be too rude, I'd like to re-phrase your Question. Are you saying that a bilge pump dewaters the bilge and not a drain like on many trailerable boats?
If so, yes the bilge pump needs to be operational all the time the boat is in the water unless you like to bail and are available to bail 24/7.
One question I have is: Is the cockpit self draining. In other words does the cockpit drain rainwater thru scuppers to overboard or does rainwater drain into the bilge. If the latter the boat will sink in a heavy rain without a reliable de-watering system which is usually an electrically driven bilge pump.
So yes you should trace the wiring to understand it and be able to troubleshoot it. And check the battery because many a bilge pump has soldiered on trying a save a boat but if it runs the battery down ... gulg, glug, glug.
A float test under controlled circumstances would be OK as long as you have a bail out plan (Pun not intended). Don't pull the trailer away or keep it in the slings until an inspection of the bilge is done. BTW any decent boatyard wouldn't remove the slings until a check was done.
Regarding the question "Is there a bilge pump from the factory" you can't tell. The boat is 48 years old and had previous owners. You can not assume anything about original equipment or modifications since manufacture.
You bought the boat, now it's yours.
There are three drain holes on the transom, two small side by side, which the previous owner explained one of them was where the bilge spit out water, and the larger slightly lower drain hole was from the cockpit. I will begin the search for a bilge pump tomorrow, there is a bit of wiring leftover, however most of them have been cut or tied off.
We'd have to go pretty far out of our way to get access to a boatyard to use slings (I am quite unsure of how much that would cost) we normally use a local small lake and boat ramp to float test.
We have a Deep Cycle battery we plan on using, it was from our previous boat.
Luckily the boat is sitting in the backyard on it's trailer, very very dry. I dont think she's seen water in years.
It is indeed our bought now, only up from here!
Two options to test the pump:
-Hook everything up and fill the bilge with water
-Turn your bilge pump upside down or pull your float switch upwards to hear the motor turn on
-Hook everything up and fill the bilge with water
-Turn your bilge pump upside down or pull your float switch upwards to hear the motor turn on
To answer your question, do you need to have a working bilge pump before conducting a float test, the answer is NO. The bilge pump is irrelevant to the test. Please do not consider or rely on the common bilge pump as a safety item, it is just a convenience item to remove incidental water from the bilge without having to get on your knees to bail it out. Incidental water can be a small leak, some rain or wash water, spray or spills; a significant intrusion will quickly overwhelm most pumps. Many boats of the era were just equipped with a Bilge On-Off switch for the boater to clear the bilge when he stepped on the boat. Many added a float switch at the bilge so that it would power the bilge when the water level reached a certain level. Check and see what you got, whether is working properly or not and then decide what to do. Go ahead and conduct your float test.
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We owned a 1975 Venture 25. There was no drain plug. I think it more likely you will have water issues caused by forgetting to put in the drain plug than you could benefit from using a drain after putting the boat back on the trailer. The amount of water getting into the boat can easily be handled with a sponge. We carried a 5 gallon bucket and hand operated pump to handle any serious leakage and fortunately never had any. To my knowledge, there was never a bilge pump factory installed in any Macgregor sailboat.
But, yes, you should dig into the wiring to understand what you have. If one of the previous owners didn't upgrade the wiring, you should.
We now own a 1995 Macgregor 26S and have totally replaced the wiring. These are nice boats but were made as inexpensively as possible. Some modest investment in materials and time will be well worth it.
Doug