[Rhodes22-list] Bilge Pumps -- Not

[Bill Effros]

Dave,

I'm the anti-bilge pump person on the list.  I think they're silly and 
provide a false sense of security--sort of like draping a St. 
Christopher's medal over your rear-view mirror, and thinking that will 
protect you when you run red lights.

Your boat won't leak any significant amount of salt water.  The thing 
that can alter that is if you do something really really dumb.  If that 
happens, salt water will come pouring in, and the toy size bilge pumps 
that will fit into our bilges will be completely overwhelmed in 10 
seconds.  Think New Orleans.

You may get some fresh water leakage from rain that doesn't drain 
properly.  If that is happening, you ought to know about it, so you can 
prevent it.  Don't let some silly little pump mask a minor problem so 
you don't know about it until it becomes a major problem.

The actual output of these little bilge pumps is pathetic.  I own one, 
but I never use it.  Instead, I use a manual $20 plastic bilge pump sold 
at West Marine.  I store it in the sliding compartment under the Port 
Settee.  Whenever I get more than a spongeful of water, I use the 
plastic bilge pump.  In a few minutes it will pump out more water than 
the 12v pumps will pump in an hour.  Literally.

If you would like to borrow my 12v bilge pump you are welcome to do so, 
along with a small jumper battery I keep lying around.  Fill your 
bathtub with 6 inches of water.  Put this pump into it, and empty the 
tub into your bathroom sink with the bilge pump.  Tell me how long it 
takes.  Let a little water keep dribbling into the tub, and the pump 
will never drain it.  Then the battery will run out of juice, and you'll 
be in the same position you would have been in with no pump at all.

Most boats will sink once enough water gets into the bilge and cabin.  
Ours won't.  But none of us has enough batteries on board to sustain a 
pump indefinitely while the water is pouring in.  If the worst happens, 
you will wind up with a wet cabin, find the hole in the hull, plug it 
up, and bail out your boat, or pump it out with a pump much larger than 
anything that will fit in our bilge.

I check the bilge every time I go out to sail.  If there is any water in 
it, I taste it to see if it is salt water or fresh.  Sometimes I keep 
the bilge bone dry.  Other times I leave some water in it because it 
acts like water ballast in rough seas, and can make the boat less 
tender.  If I've got any kind of problem with water entering my boat, I 
know it right away, because I always check the bilge and I see problems 
before they get out of control.

The extra plumbing and wiring running into the water is just more stuff 
to go wrong.  For every "the bilge pump saved my boat" story you'll hear 
on this list, there is another--"the water came flooding through the 
sink outlet and flowed directly into my bilge" story from someone else.

Not to mention what our salt water does to the moving switch parts, pump 
impellers, and hoses full of stagnant water--seems to me Bruce had 
trouble with his brand new engine one year because things were growing 
in his cooling system and no water was shooting out of the coolant 
tell-tale.  The same thing can happen to your bilge pump plumbing--only 
you'll never know, because you'll never check.

Your boat won't leak. 

KISS

Bill Effros





David Bradley wrote:

>Today's list traffic on water leaking triggers a question for me on the
>necessity of an electric bilge pump.  I am finalizing my "gadget specs" for
>my new R22 and would appreciate your advice.
>
>I noted in the archives that a preferred arrangement is to plumb through the
>sink drain, which makes snese to me.  But I didn't see a clear consensus on
>whether an electronic bilge pump is actually needed -- there seemed to be a
>stronger sentiment for just locating the source of leaks (not that the two
>are mutually exclusive).  Is this a must-have, a nice-to-have, or just
>another nuisance gadget?
>
>And if so, any other recommendations?  Practical Sailor just reviewed them
>and picked the Water Witch, an all electronic model available at Defender.
>
>Thanks, as always,
>
>Dave Bradley
>__________________________________________________
>Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list
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