Bilge pumps clogged: Fiberglass waste in the hull of my vessel
One year ago my partner went down below to whip up some lunch for my mate and I. “Gary, there’s water on the floor.” I was hoping the ice in the chest had too much melt and had leaked out.
While checking the thru-hull near the motor I saw that the bolt on the end-cap of the heat-exchanger had “sheared” off and water was flowing in from there. After closing that thru-hull I checked the bilge pump. It had stopped working as it was clogged by debris. The manual bilge stopped working also (for the same reason).
I had recently purchased a hand bilge pump for my dinghy and incidents such as this. It saved the day.
I soon figured out that the debris was small pieces of fiberglass. Apparently while manufacturing the vessel the fiberglass debris in the hull had never been removed. This was probably the first time the bottom of the hull had filled up enough to collect the debris which had then clogged both the automatic and the manual bilge pumps. The debris may have been by something else??
One year ago my partner went down below to whip up some lunch for my mate and I. “Gary, there’s water on the floor.” I was hoping the ice in the chest had too much melt and had leaked out.
While checking the thru-hull near the motor I saw that the bolt on the end-cap of the heat-exchanger had “sheared” off and water was flowing in from there. After closing that thru-hull I checked the bilge pump. It had stopped working as it was clogged by debris. The manual bilge stopped working also (for the same reason).
I had recently purchased a hand bilge pump for my dinghy and incidents such as this. It saved the day.
I soon figured out that the debris was small pieces of fiberglass. Apparently while manufacturing the vessel the fiberglass debris in the hull had never been removed. This was probably the first time the bottom of the hull had filled up enough to collect the debris which had then clogged both the automatic and the manual bilge pumps. The debris may have been by something else??