Automatic bilge pump advice please

[geem]

My only experience of a leak at sea last year completely overwhelmed the Jabsco pump. Even after 4 hours of continuously clearing the filter as every bit of underfloor debris floated into the sump it could not even half keep up so needed one of the two of us to use a jug from sump to sink continuously.
The other had to keep a lookout and dive into the nooks and crannies to identify the leak.

I hadn’t used the manual pump for years and weirdly didn’t consider it as a serious help for a few hours. Then found it was way more powerful than the electric one - and the combination of much wider pipe and no filter helped I think.

We had wooden bungs but as I could see no leaks in any of the 11 seacocks or in the hoses to their destinations I’d started down a Cheeky Rafiki thought process.

What is the manufacturers rating of your pump? Its not much help to us on the forum if you dont tell us the rating of your pump or how its installed. Of your electricsl pumping capacity is less than your manual pump then you need to seriously consider uprating your pumping capacity.

 

[RupertW]

What is the manufacturers rating of your pump? Its not much help to us on the forum if you dont tell us the rating of your pump or how its installed. Of your electricsl pumping capacity is less than your manual pump then you need to seriously consider uprating your pumping capacity.

I know - if I had it I would tell you all. Was on my Winter list to upgrade but i suspect it’s same Jabsco pump as used for most charter boats for bilge and shower drains. I think the issue is as much the long thin hose with multiple bends and a filter going 8 metres aft from pump but with much more length of hose - and an even thinner shortish hose from pump to sump.

 

[fisherman]

TThe best and biggest leak, which has sunk a couple of boats and cost at least one life, is the exhaust coming off: 3in incoming plus the engine cooling water, and often in the back of beyond where you can't get to in a hurry. In one case the outlet was submerged, (assumed to be the cause) they didn't find out until they shut down the engine and all the water rushed for'd, over she went, taking the skipper last seen going below for a lifejacket..
My Jabsco would fill a 100lt bin in much less than a minute. This was a 6:4 reduction off about 1500rpm, so 1000 rpm or so.

 

[lw395]

My only experience of a leak at sea last year completely overwhelmed the Jabsco pump. Even after 4 hours of continuously clearing the filter as every bit of underfloor debris floated into the sump it could not even half keep up so needed one of the two of us to use a jug from sump to sink continuously.
The other had to keep a lookout and dive into the nooks and crannies to identify the leak.

I hadn’t used the manual pump for years and weirdly didn’t consider it as a serious help for a few hours. Then found it was way more powerful than the electric one - and the combination of much wider pipe and no filter helped I think.

We had wooden bungs but as I could see no leaks in any of the 11 seacocks or in the hoses to their destinations I’d started down a Cheeky Rafiki thought process.

From accounts I've read, the vast majority of times people need a bilge pump at sea are like this. The normal manual pumps cope.
In the tiny minority of cases where the pumps are not going to cope, the boat is doomed and no practical pump will make much difference.

I'd be interested to hear of real life examples where the next size up of 12V Rule would have led to a different outcome.

 

[Refueler]

Or do both as has been suggested on this forum. Let electric pumps pump like crazy whilst you find and deal with the hole. If you dont have space for electric pumps then I hope you find the hole and deal with it quickly. Smaller boats with less volume will sink faster than a larger volume boat for the same size skin fitting failure

Yes sorry - I wasn't meaning ignore the leak and not pump ... of course switch it on ... but that's it ... get the hole plugged as fast as possible, if there are two or more of you on board - then its all hands !!

 

[Refueler]

There is one pump on board that people ignore ... but only if it pumps overboard ............. the Toilet ..........

You'd be amazed at how much that can pump ....

 

[RupertW]

So what was it?

I’d checked all the inlets I could think of including exhaust and prop shaft so after 8 hours and after midnight I gave up on that and decided to stop the tack we’d been on for two days (and still had at least 4 days to go) and very reluctantly dropped the main and turned downwind to take the pressure off the keel. Within 15 minutes we’d cleared the bilge and started taking turns at short off watches again to get our heads clear again to reconsider options.

And of course once dozing I started thinking about why a boat that hadn’t leaked in 9 years of sailing started now. I remembered a text from our fridge engineer six months before saying he’d found a small valve stuck shut under the sink and should he replace it whilst fitting the through hull cooling. I’d always suspected it was to divert fridge draining to the sink seacock but as the fridge drained into the bilge I’d paid it no attention.

So basically when heeled over sea water squirted up the sink drain but not so high it appeared at the plug hole - that’s just normal. But now it could also emerge up the fridge drainhole and go down the nearby hole a previous owner must have drilled to allow the fridge to drain to bilge.

 

[Refueler]

Funny Rupert mentions sinks ... if I sail and have stbd side deep - my sink overflows - so I usually close the sink overboard valve to prevent it.

 

[RupertW]

Funny Rupert mentions sinks ... if I sail and have stbd side deep - my sink overflows - so I usually close the sink overboard valve to prevent it.

Our heads sink does so it was shut but the galley sink is higher and deeper so I’d never needed to before or since,