Bilge water and self bailer question

[jeadstx]

I plan to replace my self bailer soon with one from D&R. I have a bilge pump, but as Thomasjbrothersjr said, if you have a cockpit full of water, the bilge pump may not be what is needed. I have put a rail under water during a race in heavy winds and wasn't able to bail. It would have been nice to have the water to be able to drain out thru the bailer. My original doesn't work so it just has a drain plug to keep water from coming in. Tim Webb replaced his original bailer and says the new one works well to empty the cockpit.

John

[Breakin Wind]

Scott, how do you find redundancy between the self bailer and the bilge pump. If your cockpit has become full of water due to dunking a rail it doesn't mean your bilge has filled with water. I am not against getting rid of the self bailer but seem confused as to how your bilge pump will help.

With a cockpit full of water you could open up your inspection ports and flood the bilge allowing you to use the pump that way. Am I missing something?


Point me in the right direction, thanks
TBone

Hi Tbone,
Fair enough question... I have a small bilge pump (sez that's what it is on the package) temporarily installed in my cockpit sump, so I called it a bilge pump. I guess I should call it a sump pump I'm still evaluating whether it's worth keeping there or not.

I also have at least two (probably three) paths for water to get into my bilge. I installed two battery boxes through the cuddy floor (it was badly cracked and open from the PO) and apparently I was not completely successful in sealing them to be water tight. Also, I think I'm getting some leakage from one or more of the centerboard weak points. Additionally, before adding the "sump" pump this spring, I had installed a 1" drain plug from the cockpit sump that dumps into the bilge so when dealing with a cockpit full of rainwater or dunkage, I could pull the plug and let my real bilge pump could do the work of moving it out.

So between the two pumps I have about 2000 GPH (1500 with the bilge alone) pumping capacity whether I'm moving or stationary so that's why I'm considering the self-bailer more or less redundant. That and it's broken so I'd have to spend money to replace it only to not use it.

Thanks -Scott

[jeadstx]

I take it that your pumps are electric. What if the water getting into the boat causes electrical failure? Perhaps have something to drain the boat that doesn't need power would be good backup.

John

[GreenLake]

+1

Any capsize or swamping will take out your electrics, reducing your capacity to 0.000 GPH.

That's when your 5-gal bucket will come in handy..

[Breakin Wind]

+1

Any capsize or swamping will take out your electrics, reducing your capacity to 0.000 GPH.

That's when your 5-gal bucket will come in handy..

Is that true? I can't say that I know this for a fact having never tried it, but if I submerge a 12 volt battery, does it stop working? I shouldn't think so... I could imagine some current bleed off between the posts through the water, and having never stuck an ohmmeter into water so I really don't know what the impedance of a foot of water is, but I doubt it's going to pull out a couple hundred amps from both batteries in the time before I get it righted and start pumping.

But I think if nothing else I've seen movies where cars go in the lake and the headlights stay on... (unless that's hollywood magic...) Wait... as a matter of fact I do know this is true... the year before last, I did a dumb thing and lowered my speedboat off the boat lift into the water without putting in the plug (oops) to get it out of the way from some work we were doing on the lift. I pushed it around the other side of the dock and didn't pay any more attention to it until about 30 minutes later when my friend commented that it was sitting pretty low in the water.

The flotation held it up, but the battery and gas tanks were definitely submerged. I put in the plug and started the "sump" pump as there is no bilge in that boat. It pumped away until the boat was empty (definitely not dry though). I did augment it with another pump to assist, but no question the built in pump was working off the submerged battery for the duration.


I have wondered about the batteries tipping on their sides in the event of a blowdown or capsize, but they are supposed to be sealed... Thinking about all of this now, I should probably double check my battery tie down straps too..

But at the end of the day, I do keep a 5 gallon bucket in the cuddy for a variety of uses and if needed, it could become the arm-strong backup pump too.

Thanks - Scott

[GreenLake]

In salt water I wouldn't doubt it. In fresh water it depends. If you have dried acid around your battery posts you might get localized electrolyte concentrations and then it's a matter of time how long the discharge would take. Could be you might be fine if yo act quickly.