I have ran for years with a dry bildge…. Why would you need a system to pump water out of the bilge….. can’t the intrusion be fixed
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Some boats are a little more wet than others. Take the design of my cockpit. It has drains the the corners, but the floor hatch is the middle of the transom entryway. As a result it needs 2 drains under the hatch to handle runoff. If they get clogged or there's an exceptionally heavy rain, I'll get some overflow into the storage area below.I have ran for years with a dry bildge…. Why would you need a system to pump water out of the bilge….. can’t the intrusion be fixed
It's a valid question. After much investigation and multiple haulouts, I located and remedied the source of the saltwater in the engine room bilge. When it rains heavily--which it doesn't do often in SoCal--I get water down there. I have freshwater flush attachments in the transom locker. When the hose is hooked up, you get some water down there. Etc. etc. I could trace down and probably remedy each and every source, but the installation of a dry bilge system seems easier.I have ran for years with a dry bildge…. Why would you need a system to pump water out of the bilge….. can’t the intrusion be fixed
Doing the same here with my '81 310. Mostly it's rainwater ingress on my boat, and freshwater smells just awful when it's been stagnant for a while. I've finally had enough of both the old boat smell and hand-pumping and drying the bilge after every goddamn rainstorm. Both suck, I don't want to choose between them anymore.
Got some 3/8" ID vinyl hose, coax faceplates, Scotchbrite sponges, and 3/8-1/2 barb fittings from the local hardware store, and a Seaflow diaphragm pump, an in-line strainer, and a timer (to go in the galley) on the way from Amazon. I am going to rig this to cover both the midships and aft sump, both in the engine room. I'll manually swap them over until I'm comfortable that it works well, then make a suction manifold and go down to 1/8" tubing per that ancient Catalina owner's club article that started this all off for everyone. The only thing I'm not completely sure on is where to route the drain hose. Right now I think the scupper drains that go from the cockpit through the engine room and out the transom might be the best bet - I want to leave the bilge pump hoses well alone.
I'm in to this for maybe $60 in parts which compares really well to the off-the-shelf products. I don't need an app for this omg.
This thread went deep into the timing/detection portion, but not so much in the pickup side of a DIY. Can someone flip their pickup over so we can see that? Is it really as simple as a sponge in a case with a 1/4" tube stuck into the sponge? How deep? All the way? Just to the top of the sponge? what kind of sponge? Kitchen scrubber without the scouring pad?
Thanks! Rainwater intrusion in Florida is a real struggle. Especially tropical storms.
This thread went deep into the timing/detection portion, but not so much in the pickup side of a DIY. Can someone flip their pickup over so we can see that? Is it really as simple as a sponge in a case with a 1/4" tube stuck into the sponge? How deep? All the way? Just to the top of the sponge? what kind of sponge? Kitchen scrubber without the scouring pad?
Thanks! Rainwater intrusion in Florida is a real struggle. Especially tropical storms.
I've done the portlights, but I have little doubt that the deck/hull joint is probably leaking here and there. That's a hell of a job, but maybe at the next haul out...It seems at least from a Sea Ray perspective that 60 percent of water leakage in the bilge is from the deck to hull shoebox joint. 20 percent from portlights and hatches. And, the most the rest from internal leaking systems.
When I bought the boat there was water accumulating under the forward section floor - after a year of searching I found the issue in the guest head window. Sea Ray seems to do a poor job cutting holes in the hull for windows and mine was so bad there was an opening beyond the gasket. The girls that do my fiberglass work had to build that back out and gelcoat so the window gasket could seal to something.
The other big issue was the poor job caulking the shoebox joint. Underway water poured through that joint. Again, the girls pulled all of the rubrail off, cleaned out that joint and completely filled it with 3M 5200. Lastly, the engine exhaust tube that goes through the side of the hull at the waterline was laid up poorly and had some pinholes that water entered the bilge. Actually, it entered in the very aft end of the boat found a way in the hollow stringer and migrated to the forward bilge - a year to find out that leak but it's fixed now.
The boat is completely dry now.
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