Bailing...

[StellaGirl]

We were shipping quite alot of water on board at the weekend mid channel and a couple of people took it in turns with the bucket and were chucking the water out into the cockpit. This was the most effective and quickest way to keep on top of it.
What are peoples opinions on the best way of bailing out, bilge pumps, etc etc...?

 

[bigmart]

They do say that there is nothing as effective as a frightened man with a bucket!

Martin

 

[Mirelle]

Good subject.

With a modern type offshore racer, with a dinghy shaped hull, a shallow cockpit and a wide cabin door, you are indeed as well off with a bucket as with anything.

Where you have more lifting to do, a pump is better I think.

I like three different types for different reasons

The ordinary, now nearly unversal, diaphagm pump wont jam but it is quite hard work to shift a lot of water with it.

The old semi-rotary will move a lot of water with little effort, but it can jam.

The really old farmyard type pump with a standard that ships in the deck is brilliant, won't ever jam and is really easy to use - but you have to stand on deck to use it. Whale made these until just a few years ago, for fishing boats, as they will pass a live herring without complaint!

My preferred method is to sit down below and use a big diaphragm pump mounted under the sole - this of course only works if you have deep bilges - but it is quite comfortable and you can keep it up for hours.

 

[jerryat]

Not strictly an answer to your question, but you don't say how/where was the water getting in. I would prefer to concentrate on preventing this happening in the first instance?!! /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[StellaGirl]

forehatch leaking....

 

[Sans Bateau]

Once sailed a chartered an X 332, every port light was loose! Took in loads of water 'till went around and had a good tighten up.

If there is enough water down below to be scooped up by a bucket......

You have the right tool!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[jamesjermain]

You can shift an amazing amount of water with a bucket.

In an ideal world I would have a big mechanical pump driven by the engine, an electric pump for dealing with small ingresses and keeping bilges dry on a mooring, and two big manual Whale Gushers - one operated in the cockpit and one down below. I have the latter three but not the first.

 

[bedouin]

Depends a bit on your boat, but on Bedouin by the time buckets are any use for bailing you are in serious trouble /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

For dealing with most water ingress I think it is hard to better an electric bilge pump - although we can have an interesting debate about the capacity. And for dealing with regular small ingress (leaking forehatch, stern gland &c) an automatic switch is very nice

 

[graham]

As a single hander I have the pump rigged next to the helm position(Mk 5 Henderson) so in dire straights I could pump and sail towards safety at the same time.

I think a pump below is a good idea as if battened down hove to you could pump without going out.

A large bucket has the least moving parts to go wrong !

One problem with these small electric float switch pumps is that you may not notice a small leak until it gets worse and the pump cant keep up.They should (IMHO) always be fitted in conjunction with a bilge alarm set lower than the float switch.

 

[Stemar]

A good idea I read about once is to put an analogue clock from a car in parallel with the pump. Set it to 1200 when you leave the boat andf when you come back you can see exactly if and how long the pump's been running.