Bilge set up

[Traumaguard]

Just wanted to get some ideas on bilge set up. I was thinking of taking two 1250 bilges, installing a float switch for each bilge and then wiring one bilge to the starter battery and one to the house battery. I already have two holes for the bilge to go out. One is just under the transom above the water line. The other comes out the port side and is already plumbed to a manual bilge. Tell me what set up you like. Does anyone have any stories? Here is one of mine. We were in the middle of re plumbing a H27 head. We were on a port tack for about 20 minutes when I looked down and saw GALLONS of water in the cabin. We forgot to plug the hole where the head sink drains out. Luckily we saw it and turned on the bilge. We did not have a float switch. We used a plastic ziplock bag and a rubber band to plug the hole. It worked for the rest of the day.!!!! PS has anyone used the very nice bilge switches that have auto/on/off????

 

[Nice N Easy]

Bilge pumps

Not knowing your boats actual set up, that sounds good so far. I highly recommend the electronic switches over the manual float switches. If you can find them, the ones with two prongs sticking out the bottom seem to be the best around. And the on/off/auto switches work well, as long as you remember to leave them on Auto.

 

[Nice N Easy]

And thru hulls

Thru hulls without seacocks on them are quite common, but don't know why. I would put a seacock on all thru hulls that might even have a remote chance of being under when the boat is heeled over.

 

[ED]

another idea

Put one pump on an automatic switch low in the bilge with an automatic float swith. and a auto/manual/off swich. when you want to you can turn it on. the rest of the time it runs on the float switch. put in on the largest battery bank you have. Then istall the second pump to a switch at a higher level in the bilge. the second pump kicks in only when the water is deep in the bilge. use the same switching system for that. leave it in auto. Then the kicker is to put a cycle counter on the lower pump. It will tell you how often the pump kicks on when you are not there. These are resetable counters, reset it to 0 when you leave the boat. when you come back you know how many times the pump has kicked in. This can often tell you that a probem (leak) has developed. YOU can then look for a problem before it sinks the boat.

 

[traumaguard]

Bilge counter

Where do I get one of these counters?

 

[Bob]

Counter

There is an article in the current (March/April) issue of "Good Old Boat" on p.78 regarding making your own cycle counter using a $3 Radio Shack (# 275-233) relay and a $4 WalMart pedometer.