dry bilge(s)

BobCT · Post by **BobCT** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 2:36 pm

I have a little caper up my sleeve.... I went to the CT boat show and saw a machine which automatically detects and discharges bilge water. Pretty cool but $1,400+.

So, I did a little research and diaphram pumps are designed to get every last drop which obviously a bilge pump does not. Then, I started thinking about the diaphram shower pump which I already had installed and sits idle 99% of the time.

So, with some nylon "T"'s and 1/4" barb/Pex shutoff valves I think I have a manual solution. Basically I have a 3/4" hose in the bilge that I can use like a shop vac with the shower pump sucking up the water. I have two shutoff valves which cutoff the shower drain portion. For the bilge in front of the head it works great. I've been using a pan and dumping the condensate water from the A/C on demand. Now I'll mount something permanent and keep the bilge and pan dry when I needed. When taking a shower, I just close the shutoff valves. No big deal, that's about 5 times a season.

Then, I ran a hose all the way under the freshwater tank and stuck it through the small deck plate in the mid cabin berth. This goes into the engine room. Then I tried sucking the water out of the engine room bilge using the same method and it worked but slowly. Unfortunately, there's not enough clearance under the water tank so I had to step down the hose size. I think I can get this to work too but might require a different hose route. I can mount a permanent section of hose hanging on the engine room bulkhead with another shutoff valve. Flip on the shower pump and clean up both bilge areas easily.

Worst case, I'll install another pump in the engine room for this purpose and "T" off the wetbar sink drain or deck drain. I don't need it to be fully automatic, I've been doing this pretty regularly with a manual pump and bucket which is a pain. The engine room water might take a number on the pump after a while but it'll probably be fine for years.

Bob

Stripermann2 · Post by **Stripermann2** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 3:08 pm

Good deal.

Uh, but you only take a shower, 5 times a season.? Wee-heew...

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 5:57 pm

Why go throught at the troulble , Boats have had bilge water for years . It pretty normal .

BobCT · Post by **BobCT** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 8:14 pm

well, I already replaced a 3' section of my engine room bulkhead because of standing water. It wicked up over the years. I want to keep the stringers and bulkheads as dry as possible.

That's my primary motivation with the added bonus of no smell because of trapped moisture.

Big D · Post by **Big D** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 9:18 pm

The diaphram pumps are good for that sort of thing. I suggested using them some time ago to get rid of standing water in hollow keels. All you need is a hole in the top, insert a hose to the bottom of the keel and pump out as needed. Saw that it in a couple boats a while back and thought it was a great idea. Now that's it's approaching winterizing time in some areas

, keep in mind that these pumps need to be winterized.

comodave · Post by **comodave** » Mon Oct 01, 2012 10:52 pm

I agree that keeping every bit of water out of the bilge should be the goal. On my F32, the hollow keel was full of water that would make the holding tank smell good in comparison, I drilled some holes to drain the keel. Seeing no realistic way of keeping the water out permanently, I had the false floor in the bilge cut out and ground smooth. Now any water that gets into the bilge can be pumped out and will not stagnate. Also had the forward engine room bulkhead extended down to the keel. This will keep any oil and possible fumes contained in the engine room where they can be cleaned up or vented out with the blowers. When I bought the boat there was oil residue all the way forward under the vee berth. I am going to install a diaphragm pump with the pickup to the lowest part of each bilge section to manually pump out the last bit of water. There will also be a high capacity centrifugal pump on an automatic switch in each section mounted as low as possible, but they will not fit down into the former hollow keel due to the vee shape of the hull.

Mike Kulp · Post by **Mike Kulp** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:37 am

I always hate standing water drives me insane, I installed a small 350gpm pump that starts every 5 minutes and senses if there is a load on the motor to pump out the water I installed it in front of the factory pump and cut a small section of mounting board so it sits on the bottom of the boat it sucks it down to about a half inch of water. not perfect but better than three inches.

P-Dogg · Post by **P-Dogg** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 1:06 pm

I had the false floor in the bilge cut out and ground smooth

Do you have any idea how thick the thinnest part of the hollow keel is? On my '85 Tricab, the hull bottom is 5/8" thick solid fiberglass. One previous poster in a different thread showed his repair to the side of his keel. It was not a tricab, but it was not anywhere near 5/8" thick either more like 1/4". Is there any chance that you compromised the integrity of your hull by exposing the inside of the keel? What if you bust the keel open by hitting a submersed object?

That said, I am a fan of using the hollow keel as a sump to keep the bilge dry. I was considering a garboard plug (which can be plugged when necessary) from the bilge to the keel (or a plain hole small enough to be plugged if you are there, or for a bilge pump to keep up with if you are not), and a diaphragm pump hard-plumbed above the water line through the bilge into the keel (the point being that water could not enter the bilge from pipe to the keel, only enter the pump and be discharged).

prowlersfish · Post by **prowlersfish** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 6:09 pm

Pehaps thisd type pump would help .

http://www.westmarine.com/webapp/wcs/st ... sNum=50634

comodave · Post by **comodave** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 6:35 pm

The covering glass was very thin. So thin that it would oil can if you pushed on it. I saw water weeping up through the covering after the boat had been inside stored for the last 6 months. I was worried about drilling into it, so I first took a screw driver an actually wiggled it through the covering with very little effort. When I took the screw driver out the foul water squirted up about 3 inches. The smell was horrible. I then took a small hole saw and drilled several holes and was able to vacuum the water out. The smell was still present, so I used some grey water tank cleaner for RVs and poured it in through a hole I drilled in the engine room covering. That helped, but it still smelled. I got some Kanberra Gell and put them in the bilges and left them there until I came back the next month. The smell was gone completely.

As to structural integrity, the covering was so thin it could not have contributed any significant strength. I have a fiberglass guy that has worked on Trojans for years do the work since the boat is in Michigan and I live in Tucson. He also did some deck repairs, glassed the rope locker bulkhead so it does not drain into the bilge, glassed the engine room bulkhead to the keel to contain spills in the engine room and some other misc work. Their opinion was that the covering was so thin that it would not be missed.

The only downside I can see from removing the covering is that a centrifugal bilge pump will not fit down at the bottom of the keel so I will have to fit a diaphragm pump to do the cleanup pumping. However, that is a small price to pay to get rid of the smell completely. My wife would not be able to deal with the smell as she gets headaches easily from smells like this.

Sanctuary 2 · Post by **Sanctuary 2** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 1:18 am

I agree about keeping the bilge water levels low.

I hooked pump up in mine and found no where to discharge it above the water line. I don't see anywhere it would hook to....any ideas

jim

BobCT · Post by **BobCT** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 7:32 am

I ran another 3/8" line under the water tank/floor and now it works fine, sucking out the water in about a minute. I had given up on this part but when I pulled the first hose out it was kinked in two places. I got some 3/8" poly tubing from Lowes that doesn't easily kink.

That's about a 15' run so if you have a diaghram pump already, I think you could do this from just about anywhere on the boat. To recap, the original shower drain pump will do four things:

1) drain for shower
2) "wet vac" for mid bilge
3) same for engine room bilge
4) same for A/C condensate pan

This only cost me about $40, most of which were the shutoff valves. It saved me the hassle of installing another pump (or two) plus figuring out where to drain it.

Jim, this might be an option for you..

Sanctuary 2 · Post by **Sanctuary 2** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 1:05 am

Thanks for the feedback. I should have mentioned I installed a rule pump.

I don't have a shower drain that I know of on board.

All I have is the water inlet for the head and the overboard discharge. both of them are below the waterline and have been sealed....

jim

Cmount · Post by **Cmount** » Wed Oct 10, 2012 10:04 pm

So I just installed a Whale 650 in the foremost portion of the bildge...what a difference it made. There is virtually no water there now. Thanks for the reco on that pump! Makes the old girl very happy

Me too!

Bigearl · Post by **Bigearl** » Sat Oct 13, 2012 5:13 pm

Good idea Bob to use a diaphragm pump to get the bilge as dry as possible. I fitted one as a washdown pump on my Campion fishing/utility boat and it is self priming with a lift of at least 2 feet.
I noted that Comodave mentioned his F32 has a hollow keel, can anyone tell me if the F28 also has a hollow keel as I see a plug underneath the rear of the keel but have never tried to remove it, is this for draining the keel if water gets in? Would also be important for winterizing but I have never done it.
Bigearl

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dry bilge(s)

dry bilge(s)

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