I love my Vega. I flooded the bilge today (deliberately) with a fresh water hose. It seems counter intuitive to fill the bilge all that nasty water inside the boat. I started the engine first time it works like a charm. With a flick of a couple of valves the water is drawn not from the overboard intake but the bilge its self. . The water from the bilge is quickly spat out the back cooling the engine as it go's and allowing an engine to be flashed up on the hard. It runs great and all the gages could be checked all prior to a launch. This also confirms significantly that my main engine can be used to empty the bilge in a very powerful way during an emergency. I really respect those Swedes designers. Every boat should be capable of doing this. Sincerely John
Main engine to empty the bilge
- Thread starter John
- Start date
i did this on sv Emma Gail as an emergency bilge pump option, and it certainly helped move some water, ultimately the primary and back up pumps, in addition to this engine siphon, and the hand pump were not enough, but hey...thats a chance all sailors take when they dance with the devil on the deep blue sea. i'd recommend it to anyone, but i would NEVER close the primary engine cooling valve completely while at sea, things get hectic and when the bilge is pumped dry, you may not realize it until the engine shuts off. low cost fool proof non electrical bilge pump capability. a must for anyone who is serious about crossing the deep!K.L.Magee
From: John beowulf@...
From: John beowulf@...
I can see that being useful on the hard, but I'm dubious about using it sea
as a bilge pump.
- the throughput through the engine is nowhere near as high as a bilge pump
- if there's that much water coming in, it's probably coming in quicker
than the throughput of your engine's cooling system
- The bilge will have all sorts of crud in it, so not long before your
impeller's blocked and the engine overheats.
- if there's that much water there's a good chance it's slopping around and
your engine will be compromised anyway.
I had a great idea long ago about using a dinghy pump (the type you use with
your foot) as an emergency bilge pump .. it was pointed out that it was no
match for a drowning man with a bucket.Alisdair
as a bilge pump.
- the throughput through the engine is nowhere near as high as a bilge pump
- if there's that much water coming in, it's probably coming in quicker
than the throughput of your engine's cooling system
- The bilge will have all sorts of crud in it, so not long before your
impeller's blocked and the engine overheats.
- if there's that much water there's a good chance it's slopping around and
your engine will be compromised anyway.
I had a great idea long ago about using a dinghy pump (the type you use with
your foot) as an emergency bilge pump .. it was pointed out that it was no
match for a drowning man with a bucket.Alisdair
I put an in-line strainer w/ check valve in the end of my bilge suction ... originally, the residual water in the lines up to the pump would drain back ... now it doesn't ... part of the "1 gallon always in the bilge"?
I'd echo the concerns about using the engine mounted pump for anything but an extreme emergency contingency for pumping the bilge ... have seen engines with PTOs and seperate belts/pulleys to larger pumps ... the old landing craft and launches in the Navy had them.
Congrats on the getting the engine going! Time for the sails!!
Regards,
Tom
V1690
I'd echo the concerns about using the engine mounted pump for anything but an extreme emergency contingency for pumping the bilge ... have seen engines with PTOs and seperate belts/pulleys to larger pumps ... the old landing craft and launches in the Navy had them.
Congrats on the getting the engine going! Time for the sails!!
Regards,
Tom
V1690
Hmmm. As a shipwright in the Royal Canadian Navy I understand that during critical damage control situations one must address the flood by slowing it until it can be handled by the pumps. I have a soft wood plug tied off at all of the ten through hulls. (Ten seems a lot to me). My bilge is clean and clear thanks to the removable plug, degreaser, and elbow grease. The man and the bucket theory would seem reasonable until you realize that you can't actually get a bucket into the bilge. What I witnessed today was the engines ability to move a substantial amount of water in a remarkably quick time. Closing or throttling the overboard valve is obvious. Like I said "I love my Vega" it has a capasity which other sailboats do not. As undefinable or unmeasurable the volume or capacity of a 13 HP engine might be it is more than none. Which somewhat makes up for the ten through hulls
when single handing and if you have a hull breach, in bad weather, its real hard to leave the tiller long enough to rip out cabinetry and address the leak... but you are absolutely right about the order of business. just like triage... if she were a patient you'd have to stop the bleeding if you wanted to save her.K.L.Magee
From: John beowulf@...
From: John beowulf@...
Through hulls
From forward to aft
1. Sounder
2. Log
3. Head Sea water intake
4. Head OBD
5. Galley Sea water intake
6. Galley sink OBD
7. Engine Raw water intake (Bilge)
8. Engine exhaust OBD
9. Port cockpit drain
10. STBD cockpit drain
Note the last three are at slightly above the DWL
From forward to aft
1. Sounder
2. Log
3. Head Sea water intake
4. Head OBD
5. Galley Sea water intake
6. Galley sink OBD
7. Engine Raw water intake (Bilge)
8. Engine exhaust OBD
9. Port cockpit drain
10. STBD cockpit drain
Note the last three are at slightly above the DWL
I like having this feature because it allows me to give my heat exchanger a fresh water flush occasionally, as well as acting as an auxilliary bilge pump.
I eliminated the 'crud' problem by tee-ing off the bilge water pickup hose upstream of the raw water strainer, that way all water entering the water pump is filtered. A little good house keeping in the bilge helps too ;-)
My engine sound changes from a "slush slush" to a "pop pop" when it's run out of raw water, as I discovered when an impeller failed.
When test running a Yanmar 2GMF in the garage I was surprised how quickly that little pump emptied a 5 gallon bucket ... while only at idle speed ... at full throttle it must be a lot faster.
I think, in a crisis situation, you can't have too many options for getting rid of water.
Peter
www.sintacha.com
I eliminated the 'crud' problem by tee-ing off the bilge water pickup hose upstream of the raw water strainer, that way all water entering the water pump is filtered. A little good house keeping in the bilge helps too ;-)
My engine sound changes from a "slush slush" to a "pop pop" when it's run out of raw water, as I discovered when an impeller failed.
When test running a Yanmar 2GMF in the garage I was surprised how quickly that little pump emptied a 5 gallon bucket ... while only at idle speed ... at full throttle it must be a lot faster.
I think, in a crisis situation, you can't have too many options for getting rid of water.
Peter
www.sintacha.com
I used to have 8 through hull openings ;
2 cockpit drains
raw water inlet for engine
sink drain
salt water inlet for sink
toilet outlet
toilet inlet
Log impellor hole.
I have since reduced this to 6 and could bring it down to 5 as I rarely use the log these days, relying on GPS instead.
Mike________________________________
From: Brian Stannard brianstannard@...
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, 1 April 2012, 9:06
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: Main engine to empty the bilge
Can you please list the 10 through hulls - I am curious why you have so
many?
2 cockpit drains
raw water inlet for engine
sink drain
salt water inlet for sink
toilet outlet
toilet inlet
Log impellor hole.
I have since reduced this to 6 and could bring it down to 5 as I rarely use the log these days, relying on GPS instead.
Mike________________________________
From: Brian Stannard brianstannard@...
To: AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sunday, 1 April 2012, 9:06
Subject: Re: [AlbinVega] Re: Main engine to empty the bilge
Can you please list the 10 through hulls - I am curious why you have so
many?
That's 10 all right. My sounder is installed inside so that eliminates one.
I don't count the exhaust as it is above water on my boat (not a Vega) My
galley seawater inlet may be T'ed off of the engine intake - not installed
yet. The rest I have and my cockpit drains are well below the waterline.
I don't count the exhaust as it is above water on my boat (not a Vega) My
galley seawater inlet may be T'ed off of the engine intake - not installed
yet. The rest I have and my cockpit drains are well below the waterline.