How do you keep your bilge dry (more or less) and your boat floating? In your opinion, was your boat properly equipped with pumps when new? Or have you added or changed out bilge pumps over the years? Pump out your opinions here, then vote in this week's Quick Quiz at the bottom of the home page.
- Status
Keeping your boat afloat
Fot a very informative discussion of bilge pumps, please see the article "All About Bilge Pumps", by surveyor David Pascoe, at http://www.yachtsurvey.com/bilge_pumps.htm
Fot a very informative discussion of bilge pumps, please see the article "All About Bilge Pumps", by surveyor David Pascoe, at http://www.yachtsurvey.com/bilge_pumps.htm
I think the spiders bail her out at night
My 23 has never taken on any water. No leaks - go figure! Cockpit drains work well and my bulges are always dry. I do have a hand pump but other than playing with it, I've never had an opportunity to use the thing. Greg H23 Faster-
My 23 has never taken on any water. No leaks - go figure! Cockpit drains work well and my bulges are always dry. I do have a hand pump but other than playing with it, I've never had an opportunity to use the thing. Greg H23 Faster-
Keeping her dry
I make it one of my maintenance priorities to keep her bilge dry. I keep corks in the drains of both the fridge and freezer to keep in the cold and to keep condensation out of the blige so that it stays clean and dry. I am tenatious about finding and fixing any new leaks. I have not had one from below the water line(Thank the Lord), but have found and stopped a few above it. Each year I fill and soak the bilge in a solution of Simple Green, it is a bio-degradable soap and as I have never had oil in my bilge water, pumping over the side is not an ecological problem. In the past I've just run a hose into the bilge and let the electric pump empty her out while I stir the bubbles to get the scunge out. From now on I'll also employ my manual pump to be sure that it functions properly(when was the last time you used yours?). Drips when doing an oil change or swapping diesel filters are swabbed with a rag and disposed of properly. I was recently enlightened to the fact that we should all check and exercise our manual bilge pumps at least once a year. A fellow I read about found that his manual pump did not work after he'd inspected it and had decided it looked fine. You need to try it out once in a while. There is a very good article on the subject entitled: "Can your bilge pumps handle an emergency-stemming the flood" on page 82 of the May/June '00 issue of Ocean Navigator magazine. It might be on line, their web address is: www.oceannavigator.com. In it there is a rather sobering table of inflow information. For example: A one inch hole one foot below the waterline of your boat will produce a flood of twelve gallons/minute or 720 gallons/hour! I think stemming the flow first and draining the water later is the proper order of events in an emergency(Of course you do have tapered wooden plugs for each thru-hull aboard, and a map of where each one is, don't you?). At the other end of the chart, a five inch hole four feet under the waterline will produce five hundred eighty eight gallons/minute! I don't even want to know how many gallons/hour that is! Ron P.S. Don't forget about any shower sump pumps aboard that you might employ to help drain the boat if you have a problem.
I make it one of my maintenance priorities to keep her bilge dry. I keep corks in the drains of both the fridge and freezer to keep in the cold and to keep condensation out of the blige so that it stays clean and dry. I am tenatious about finding and fixing any new leaks. I have not had one from below the water line(Thank the Lord), but have found and stopped a few above it. Each year I fill and soak the bilge in a solution of Simple Green, it is a bio-degradable soap and as I have never had oil in my bilge water, pumping over the side is not an ecological problem. In the past I've just run a hose into the bilge and let the electric pump empty her out while I stir the bubbles to get the scunge out. From now on I'll also employ my manual pump to be sure that it functions properly(when was the last time you used yours?). Drips when doing an oil change or swapping diesel filters are swabbed with a rag and disposed of properly. I was recently enlightened to the fact that we should all check and exercise our manual bilge pumps at least once a year. A fellow I read about found that his manual pump did not work after he'd inspected it and had decided it looked fine. You need to try it out once in a while. There is a very good article on the subject entitled: "Can your bilge pumps handle an emergency-stemming the flood" on page 82 of the May/June '00 issue of Ocean Navigator magazine. It might be on line, their web address is: www.oceannavigator.com. In it there is a rather sobering table of inflow information. For example: A one inch hole one foot below the waterline of your boat will produce a flood of twelve gallons/minute or 720 gallons/hour! I think stemming the flow first and draining the water later is the proper order of events in an emergency(Of course you do have tapered wooden plugs for each thru-hull aboard, and a map of where each one is, don't you?). At the other end of the chart, a five inch hole four feet under the waterline will produce five hundred eighty eight gallons/minute! I don't even want to know how many gallons/hour that is! Ron P.S. Don't forget about any shower sump pumps aboard that you might employ to help drain the boat if you have a problem.
Dry Bilge...
...is there such thing? I believe that my h34 was 'bilged' properly for recreational day sailing; for coastal waters, however,I rely on my Edson kahuna, supergusher XL-2000.
) Just kidding, but it's a one gallon per stroke manual bilge pump. Would not leave the Columbia river without it!! Come on guys, most of you have gate valves, it's not about whether or not one will break at some point, it's WHEN is it going to break! I still have not replaced mine. Shame on me!
...is there such thing? I believe that my h34 was 'bilged' properly for recreational day sailing; for coastal waters, however,I rely on my Edson kahuna, supergusher XL-2000.
) Just kidding, but it's a one gallon per stroke manual bilge pump. Would not leave the Columbia river without it!! Come on guys, most of you have gate valves, it's not about whether or not one will break at some point, it's WHEN is it going to break! I still have not replaced mine. Shame on me!H380 Bilges
The H380 has multiple bilges. There is an isolated bilge beneath the engine to contain any petroleum product. There is a bilge under the refrigerator pump and shower sump; the sump itself is in its own container. This bilge collects liquid from the lockers on the "back porch" and under the aft berth. This means that any leaks in the fuel tank or holding tank will drift into this bilge. It also collects drainage from the freezer and refrigerator. There is a weep hole to the main bilge just forward of the sump bilge. The main bilge contains the auto electric bilge pump and the manual pump pickup - the pump is just below the helmsman's seat, starboard side. We keep it dry when the boat is untended during the week. We've not had the boat long enough to determine the proper management of these bilge areas. We welcome any experience in this matter NEVERMORE
The H380 has multiple bilges. There is an isolated bilge beneath the engine to contain any petroleum product. There is a bilge under the refrigerator pump and shower sump; the sump itself is in its own container. This bilge collects liquid from the lockers on the "back porch" and under the aft berth. This means that any leaks in the fuel tank or holding tank will drift into this bilge. It also collects drainage from the freezer and refrigerator. There is a weep hole to the main bilge just forward of the sump bilge. The main bilge contains the auto electric bilge pump and the manual pump pickup - the pump is just below the helmsman's seat, starboard side. We keep it dry when the boat is untended during the week. We've not had the boat long enough to determine the proper management of these bilge areas. We welcome any experience in this matter NEVERMORE
Bilgewater
My '85 25.5 (outboard power) did not have a bilge pump when I bought her. The bilge stays dry except for a sometimes leaky pop-top. I did instal an automatic pump just in case something happened while I am away from the boat. Dick Vance H-25.5 "Honey Bear"
My '85 25.5 (outboard power) did not have a bilge pump when I bought her. The bilge stays dry except for a sometimes leaky pop-top. I did instal an automatic pump just in case something happened while I am away from the boat. Dick Vance H-25.5 "Honey Bear"
My boats and bilges
My 23 had an electric pump on board when I bought it, but there's no real 'bilge' to speak of on that boat. The pump wasn't 'hard-wired' to the boat; it was just sitting in a storage compartment and hooked up direct to the battery when needed... I used it once to pump out the rain water that had accumulated in the cockpit locker (and have since fixed THAT leak), and never needed it since. My 'new' 25, on the other hand... I haven't gone over all of the boat's systems just yet; I do know that the previous owner used a sun shower in the head compartment and drained that into the bilge, and I think the icebox drains into the bilge as well. Its pump is on an automatic switch, as the boat lies on a mooring unattended much of the time. I plan to stop the 'shower in the head' practice until I can dry out the bilge and make sure there are no other significant leaks. Plans? I think the 23 is fine the way it is- It has only one through-hull fitting that would cause concern (the cockpit drain), and I have MORE than enough sealant on that, as well as a new hose with double clamping. Not too worried about that one. There are a few 5-Gallon buckets aboard (Dual purpose: Storage containers) to bail out the cabin if necessary. Eventually, I think I will have 2 electric pumps and one manual pump aboard the 25, as it's in the water and away from immediate assistance at this time- The mooring is about a mile from the nearest marina. As long as there's a charge on the battery and the wiring to the pumps is sound, I should be OK. I may try to install a sump and shower in the head compartment; Add that to the list of 'new boat projects'! ;o) --Jon Bastien H23 '2 Sheets to the Wind' H25 'Adagio'
My 23 had an electric pump on board when I bought it, but there's no real 'bilge' to speak of on that boat. The pump wasn't 'hard-wired' to the boat; it was just sitting in a storage compartment and hooked up direct to the battery when needed... I used it once to pump out the rain water that had accumulated in the cockpit locker (and have since fixed THAT leak), and never needed it since. My 'new' 25, on the other hand... I haven't gone over all of the boat's systems just yet; I do know that the previous owner used a sun shower in the head compartment and drained that into the bilge, and I think the icebox drains into the bilge as well. Its pump is on an automatic switch, as the boat lies on a mooring unattended much of the time. I plan to stop the 'shower in the head' practice until I can dry out the bilge and make sure there are no other significant leaks. Plans? I think the 23 is fine the way it is- It has only one through-hull fitting that would cause concern (the cockpit drain), and I have MORE than enough sealant on that, as well as a new hose with double clamping. Not too worried about that one. There are a few 5-Gallon buckets aboard (Dual purpose: Storage containers) to bail out the cabin if necessary. Eventually, I think I will have 2 electric pumps and one manual pump aboard the 25, as it's in the water and away from immediate assistance at this time- The mooring is about a mile from the nearest marina. As long as there's a charge on the battery and the wiring to the pumps is sound, I should be OK. I may try to install a sump and shower in the head compartment; Add that to the list of 'new boat projects'! ;o) --Jon Bastien H23 '2 Sheets to the Wind' H25 'Adagio'
Where Do You Drain The Bilge?
No bilge outlet. Do I run a line to the main compartment sink drain or to the forward head sink drain?
No bilge outlet. Do I run a line to the main compartment sink drain or to the forward head sink drain?
Have both electric and manual but I use a
shopvac since I have a dripless seal. I do test the other pumps from time to time to make sure that they work. It sure is nice to have a dry bilge.
shopvac since I have a dripless seal. I do test the other pumps from time to time to make sure that they work. It sure is nice to have a dry bilge.
Engine Water Intake
Saw an interesting article in Sail magazine regarding the installation of a "Y" fitting on your water intake hose. In the event of a major leak, the new branch of the "Y" can pull cooling water from your bilge. Just make sure it doesn't run dry and keep it screened.
Saw an interesting article in Sail magazine regarding the installation of a "Y" fitting on your water intake hose. In the event of a major leak, the new branch of the "Y" can pull cooling water from your bilge. Just make sure it doesn't run dry and keep it screened.
Bilge water
Some sort of bilge pump is necessary. The electric float type will usually do nicely for the shower gray water and ice box melt if you have a PSS Dripless maintenance free seal installed at the stuffing box. Greatest thing since cheese cake! No more worn stuffing seals or replacements and NO MORE water drippings into the bilge. If you don't have one, get one!
Some sort of bilge pump is necessary. The electric float type will usually do nicely for the shower gray water and ice box melt if you have a PSS Dripless maintenance free seal installed at the stuffing box. Greatest thing since cheese cake! No more worn stuffing seals or replacements and NO MORE water drippings into the bilge. If you don't have one, get one!
Final results
Final results for the Quick Quiz ending 5/29/2000: How do you pump your bilge? 56% Electric pump (184) 30% Both (99) 06% Manual pump (21) 04% Neither (13)
Final results for the Quick Quiz ending 5/29/2000: How do you pump your bilge? 56% Electric pump (184) 30% Both (99) 06% Manual pump (21) 04% Neither (13)
- Status