Boat race bilge pumps.

[Graham_Wright]

Anybody know how these are powered?

Could be electric (more weight) or by the movement of the boat?

 

[pvb]

Don't know about current boats, but the 2008 Cambridge boat had an electric pump.

View attachment 56781

 

[DannyB]

I heard the commentator talking about switching on the electric pumps, but you would think with the reciprocating motion of the seats that they could devise a manual pump.

 

[smert]

You don't want any of the energy the rowers are expending going on anything other than forward motion. Having something attached to the seats would take a little bit of that energy. It wouldn't be much but probably more than required for the added weight of a battery.

 

[bedouin]

I am sure they are electric.

The boats already have batteries to power the communications and it doesn't take a lot of power to run a small bilge pump for 20 minutes

Perhaps they could fit self bailers

 

[Spyro]

I would have thought with the speed the go at they could devise self bailers like they have on ribs.

 

[Graham_Wright]

You don't want any of the energy the rowers are expending going on anything other than forward motion. Having something attached to the seats would take a little bit of that energy. It wouldn't be much but probably more than required for the added weight of a battery.

There is a syphon device on the market which is started by jiggling it up and down. Used horizontally, that might do the trick. The lifting head is very small.

 

[ex-Gladys]

Bilge pumps??? Electric Amplifiers??? In my days in eights (boats were still wood then) The cox had to shout, and you got wet if the boat sank...

 

[Graham_Wright]

Bilge pumps??? Electric Amplifiers??? In my days in eights (boats were still wood then) The cox had to shout, and you got wet if the boat sank...

We rowed in the Head of the River - bit longer than the classic course I think. At the finish, you had to row the boat back again. With around 200 boats competing, the finish was chaos. Our marshall directed us onto a shingle bank. The boat, clinker built, promptly split and admitted a steady stream of water. The good news was, we had a lift back!

 

[bedouin]

Bilge pumps??? Electric Amplifiers??? In my days in eights (boats were still wood then) The cox had to shout, and you got wet if the boat sank...

I remember one occasion we were doing a practice session at race pace and there was an 8 coming the other way. No one in the boat heard the cox shouting "hold it hard" so we ended up ramming our bows into their #2 rigger and breaking off about 4'. That is one situation where the amplifier might have been useful

 

[Dipper]

We rowed in the Head of the River - bit longer than the classic course I think. At the finish, you had to row the boat back again. With around 200 boats competing, the finish was chaos. Our marshall directed us onto a shingle bank. The boat, clinker built, promptly split and admitted a steady stream of water. The good news was, we had a lift back!

I also rowed in the Head of the River in a clinker built eight. It was extremely heavy and if I remember correctly the row back was against the current. Oxford and Cambridge are lucky - they just get out at the end and celebrate (or not).