Beneteau First 30E bilge pump and water tank overflow

[shyamh]

Hello All,
I'm a recent owner of a 1984 First 30E, and I have a couple of things I could get some help with:

When we filled up the fresh water tank (port side, below the settee in the cabin), it looked like water overflowed into the bilge. The water tank does not appear to continue to leak, because the water level gauge has remained stable since, and there is no new water collecting. And later, when I was trying to pump out the bilge, it seems like the manual bilge pump is not doing its job.

• First question is, where is the water tank overflow supposed to be on these boats?
• Second, what make and model of bilge pump is in use in these boats? I took a quick look under the pump and there are no obvious marks, nor leaks ...

Any guidance would be much appreciated.

Thanks
shyam

 

[Stu Jackson]

shyam,

Most water tanks have vents on them. This allows the water pump to suck out of them. If they didn't have vents they'd be under negative pressure and the water wouldn't come out. In many cases, leaks occur where the vent connects to the top of the tank. You might want to look around where the tank is and check the hose clamps. Some tanks have inspection or clean-out ports on top and these often leak, too. Your fill hose could also be leaking either at the tank or at the deck fitting. Take it piece-by-piece and look around.

Bilge pump: looks like a Whale, pretty standard equipment on most boats. Look in a West Marine catalog or online for manual bilge pumps and compare until you find it. Not all boats from even the same builder or the same sized boats from the same builder have all identical equipment. Sometimes it depends on what they had on hand when they built the boat.

Do you also have an electric bilge pump?

Good luck.

 

[shyamh]

Hello Stu,
Thanks for the quick reply. I will look for what you described re the water tank. It does have two inspection ports (about 4-5" in diameter) and they appeare to be solid. I could not locate the vents, so will look for those next.

There is no electric bilge pump on this boat.

Thanks
shyam

 

[SoSound]

Shyamh,
We had a 1990 First 285, the fresh water tank on that boat was black plastic under the port side settee, it had a large cap with a large O-ring which provided the seal between the cap and the tank. If we overfilled the water tank, it would leak from under the cap. If it was sufficiently full and we heeled significantly it would also leak. One of the things that I used to do was to lay the O-ring out in the sun for a while to soften it up and then tighten the cap as much as I could. That seemed to take care of the leak.

If I remember correctly, the vent hose on that tank was on the top/front of the tank and ran forward through the storage area above the V-berth.

Good luck!
Dave

 

[shyamh]

For any future readers,

I took the pump out and it turned out that the diaphragm was in good shape but dirt from the bilge had gotten stuck in the flap / valve preventing it from operating normally. Opening it up, cleaning and putting things back as it should be was straightforward. When I put it back in to test, it worked fine for a bit and more dirt got in, so I had to repeat the procedure.

This time, I bought a bilge strainer and put it on to prevent more dirt from coming in.

The closest whale pump to what I have on this beneteau is the mk5 universal http://www.whalepumps.com/Marine/si...esource-library/ManualBilgeSelectionTable.pdf It doesn't look like WestMarine sells it, so if I ever need a replacement pump, I'd have to look elsewhere.

HTH
shyam