Manual Bilge

[Elwin Schwartz]

just bought a 1995 29.5. can't find a manual bilge pump anywhere. i asked hunter and they said there is one. can someone tell me where it is? i can't believe that the prior owner would have removed an item such as this.

 

[Larry Baker]

Look under wheel seat

On my 99 310, the pump is directly below the seat behind the steering wheel. IF the 290 has the same basic assembly, then the following may help you find it.Open up the cockpit gangway by folding the helm seat out and down over the swim ladder. If you're standing looking forward through the gangway facing the wheel, it should be on the left side-wall of the gangway, underneath where the seat would normally be.If you look in the bilge, there should be a big hose with a grate assembly on it that runs away somewhere (no visible pump assembly). That should be the intake.Don't know if a 99 310 matches the layout of a 95 290, but there it is...Larry Baker"Flat Broke," Grapevine, TX

 

[Bruce Mulford]

On my 1997 29.5 ....

On my 1997 29.5 the manuak bilge pump handle socket is under the helm seat (similar to the prior response). Remove the seat and you should find the socket. The pump handle is a stainless steel tube about 15" /- long with a rubber grip on one end that clips into a plastci bracket under the starboard lazarette lid. The business end of the pump is in the bilge. It is a black square box type fixture with a white flex hose attached and sits in the bilge just aft of the electric bilge pump. I'm pretty sure it says Whale Gusher or something like that on the top.

 

[Andy Falls]

Some don't

I know of two that do not have manual bilge pumps. So yours may not have one!

 

[Bill Murray]

No manual pump

I own hull # 175 - a 1995 model.It came without any manual bilge pump. There is a pump in the starboard gull wing cockpit locker but it is the manual pu,mp out for the holding tank.I found it hard to believe that this was not installed also.Bill MurrayS/V Good Faith -- h29.5

 

[Bill O'Donovan]

Unique solution

You may have heard of zealots who sail right through winter by deploying a Y-shape valve to re-winterize with antifreeze following each day trip.The same Y device can be used to pump out the bilge, notably if you've holed the boat and are sinking. We heard a waterman on the Chesapeake Bay do precisely that this summer during an emergency that we picked up on marine radio. He simply redirected the intake hose to the bilge while running the engine.