Bilge pumping

Renoops

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25 May 2010
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What is the most effective way of removing multi-compartment water from the bilges if your electrics have failed? Any recommendations apart from many buckets?
 
We have a stinking great Patay double action D120 on a metal plate, with a 6m 2" intake and a 2m 2" output. Hundreds of litres per minute especially when powered by a frightened man. In theory it can lift from 6m !

D120 available on ebay. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/PATAY-Hand-Pu...tem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item3effffb440 £60 !!!

It is very easy to take a smaller pump (e.g. Chimp or Henderson V) attach it to a wooden board, and have a couple of pipes cut to length. Best perhaps to aim to have the pump in the cockpit, with the long intake pipe worming its way below, rather than having to keep a member of crew below.

Another advantage of a good portable pump is that you can use it squirt sea water INTO the boat for seriou cleaning purposes, fire fighting, repelling boarders, soaking passing careless PWCs....
 
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Quick response, thanks. But for multiple compartments is there a manual pump on the market?

I would have thought you'd need a manual pump as a backup for each electric pump. If you fitted a single pump to multiple compartments, it would stop pumping when the first compartment was dry. You could technically connect a single manual pump to multiple compartments using a manifold and a series of valves, but as an emergency backup system, that doesn't sound like a good plan. Depending on the size of boat, i'd have thought 1/2/3 manual pumps would make more sense.
 
bilges

I know this may sound a crazy but how good are your separate areas? i.e will they if flooded splill over into the next compartment ala Titanic. If this is the case then why not make limber holes from one to the other, with a blanking plug, which when removed will let the water by into the next one and so on until it levels at the point where you can get a big manual pump and lots of buckets to work.
 
. If you fitted a single pump to multiple compartments. You could connect a single manual pump to multiple compartments using a manifold and a series of valves,

That is how Princess fitted a back up manual pump to my boat, there are 3 gate valves that are labelled above the pump).

(as it happens there is also a second one to the holding tank that could also be used )
 
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