Bilge pumps

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New Boater

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Hi all,

Just a thought, working through the boat today and I have no bilge pumps up front at all.

Just one right at the back in the engine bay.

Is this normal?

She is a Hardy Marine Seawings 305 and it just makes me wonder if I should spring a leak up front (say toilet through hulls) would it be a good idea to have a bilge pump sitting up front?

What do you do or think about it?

Cheers

NB!
 
Aren't the bilges linked with drain holes?

Our boat they are except the engine bay has a very high cill to trap fuel/oil leaks and avoid that being pumped into the sea.
 
My first boat was 25ft and only had the one automatic bilge pump but it had a manual pump as a backup.
I guess the in the event of the bilge becoming filled with water shower sump pump would have acted like a bilge pump since the lid ob the pump box was not water tight.
 
Never ceases to amaze and baffle the cheapskate number and size of penny pinching pumps fitted to some very expensive collections of glass fibre on which your life could depend.
Be aware that the quoted amounts of water the pump is capable of moving depends on just how high the water has to be moved, suspect on most boats you can halve the claimed quantities or worse.
It also helps greatly if folks bother to check they actually work.......
As for those low profile pumps which claim to remove the last few drops in the bilge, have had both the proper thing and chinese knock offs, both failing long before any of the conventional style bilge pumps ever did.

The more and bigger the better ?
 
Last edited:
I’m just thinking the following:

Your smashing along at 20knts and you hit a submerged pallet or you pop a through hull fitting or some such thing, you don’t hear it, you start taking on water up front.

Ok you are going to realise it sooner or later due to the weight of water but at that point (on my boat at least) that is going to be a LOT of water before the aft bilge pump even sees it.

I’m thinking a good beefy pump up front with a little indicator lamp/led on the dash to come on when the pump does.

I think that settles it for me.

I’m off shopping !

Ps I check may aft pump is working regularly with the over ride switch
 
petem said:
It's far more important that you check the operation of the float switch.

And ideally, it should sound an alarm when it's running.
Click to expand...
Not only that, put your hand on the pump to actually check it is running (you should feel vibration), not just assuming lifting the float and hearing a noise from both the alarm and pump it is working.
 
New Boater said:
I’m just thinking the following:

Your smashing along at 20knts and you hit a submerged pallet or you pop a through hull fitting or some such thing, you don’t hear it, you start taking on water up front.

Ok you are going to realise it sooner or later due to the weight of water but at that point (on my boat at least) that is going to be a LOT of water before the aft bilge pump even sees it.

I’m thinking a good beefy pump up front with a little indicator lamp/led on the dash to come on when the pump does.

I think that settles it for me.

I’m off shopping !

Ps I check may aft pump is working regularly with the over ride switch
Click to expand...

You are joking of course ?

You think a bilge pump would put up with such a situation ??

Let me give an example of bilge pump vs inflow.

My Perkins 4-107 blew one of its 'plugs' ... the metal cups you press into the holes left from casting - often mistakenly regarded as 'ice protection' ... The cup had corroded and when out on the boat we noted the bilges filling up ... basically the engine was emptying cooling water through the missing cup hole and into the bilge. Bilge overflowed into the main cabin bilge where the auto-pump sits.
Its a 1100GPH auto bilge pump that lifts water about 1m and out via the sink outlet.

My engine has unrestricted raw water cooling - so its quite a flow rate - that makes sure engine never gets hot enough to cause salts etc to deposit in waterways.

That pump only just managed to meet the inflow rate ... and we got home.
 
Not joking no!

just stating that in any situation where water might be coming into the boat that A, i have something in place to start getting out and B that I find out as soon as possible.

Nothing funny about that imho

PS i am not talking about a gigantic hole in the boat. I think at that point I would be pumping up the dinghy.🤣
 
New Boater said:
Not joking no!

just stating that in any situation where water might be coming into the boat that A, i have something in place to start getting out and B that I find out as soon as possible.

Nothing funny about that imho

PS i am not talking about a gigantic hole in the boat. I think at that point I would be pumping up the dinghy.🤣
Click to expand...

Even your example of a 'popped through hull' fitting is not realistic though. The volume of water that will be coming in via a dec ent sized through hull will vastly exceed what the bilge pump can squirt back out of the boat.

Basically if you get a leak in your hull you need to fix the hole pdq.

Maybe a petrol honda pump with a 1.5" discharge line could keep up with a through hull.
 
In the event of a collision with a pallet or other object / through hull failure - the best is to grab a plastic bag or even a bed sheet ... tie ropes to corners and pass under the hull to have it close off the hole ... (pump trying to keep up while you make your 'collision mat').

The water that then leaks past the 'Collision Mat' can be handled by the usual bilge pump.

How it works ? The water pressure around the hull pushes the 'mat' into the hole ...

Of course if you use such a measure - keep your speed and motion down to sensible level to allow the 'mat' to stay in position.
 
New Boater said:
Not joking no!

just stating that in any situation where water might be coming into the boat that A, i have something in place to start getting out and B that I find out as soon as possible.

Nothing funny about that imho

PS i am not talking about a gigantic hole in the boat. I think at that point I would be pumping up the dinghy.🤣
Click to expand...

I was not trying to be rude or joke about this ...

I was trying to bring reality into the scenario ... note my example of my engine plug failing and bilge pump only barely keeping up with it ... I was lucky that I was on the river and not too far from home ... if I had been out in the Baltic ... things may not have been so good.
 
Refueler said:
In the event of a collision with a pallet or other object / through hull failure - the best is to grab a plastic bag or even a bed sheet ... tie ropes to corners and pass under the hull to have it close off the hole ... (pump trying to keep up while you make your 'collision mat').

The water that then leaks past the 'Collision Mat' can be handled by the usual bilge pump.

How it works ? The water pressure around the hull pushes the 'mat' into the hole ...

Of course if you use such a measure - keep your speed and motion down to sensible level to allow the 'mat' to stay in position.
Click to expand...

This got me thinking as I have both electric and hand bilge pumps, but I know that if my boat was holed none of my pumps would keep up so a collision Mat would be a good addition in any way a hole develops below the waterline a collision Mat would ne necessary to keep the boat afloat

Our safety authority requiem me to have both hand and electric bilge pups but it's only the additional of a collision Mat that would ensure the boat was kept afloat to save the crew
 
rogerthebodger said:
This got me thinking as I have both electric and hand bilge pumps, but I know that if my boat was holed none of my pumps would keep up so a collision Mat would be a good addition in any way a hole develops below the waterline a collision Mat would ne necessary to keep the boat afloat

Our safety authority requiem me to have both hand and electric bilge pups but it's only the additional of a collision Mat that would ensure the boat was kept afloat to save the crew
Click to expand...

Collision mats are on ships ... yes - an old ancient item is still an answer ...
 
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