My P42 has a manual bilge pump located in the cockpit floor just starboard of the Edson binacle. The body of the pump is just above the inverter in the battery compartment. The pump is worked by inserting a 12" rod into the faceplate in the cockpit floor. I had assumed that this was standard equipment from the factory, but now that you mention it, there are a couple of covered screw holes near the pump which imply a modification. I had an unplanned opportunity to try out this pump when the bilge pump switch failed a few months ago. My conclusion from this test is that the manual pump is useless. I worked up a serious sweat in 90 degree temperatures, gave up from exhaustion, and could not detect a drop in the bilge water level. It felt like all my energy was going toward fighting the pump, instead of lifting water out of the bilge. A design flaw appears to be the fact that the output of the pump feeds into one of the cockpit drain hoses which then goes to a through-hull in the bottom of the boat. It felt like I was forcing water into this hose and then into the ocean, constantly fighting the back pressure. It seems the output should go to a large diameter through-hull above the water line. A longer pump arm will probably help. I think one of my dock mates explained it best when he said "There is no better bilge pump than a scared sailor with a five gallon bucket". Does anyone know why the cockpit drains go to holes in the bottom of the boat instead of the sides ?
