alahol2
Well-Known Member
Perhaps a sheet of this... http://uk.rs-online.com/web/p/perforated-plastic-sheets/0852299/ just laid across the top of the bilge would prevent small items disappearing into the depths.
Deep bilge
- Thread starter oldbilbo
- Start date
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
I carried a "grabber" in Kindred Spirit for this exact reason. It's a thing a bit like a park-keeper's litter picker, made for people in wheelchairs so they can reach objects that are high up or far away. As well as a very good grabbing claw it has a strong magnet in the tip for ferrous items. Easy to pick out anything that might have fallen in the four-foot-deep bilge aft.
Of course, having this on board guaranteed that in three years of ownership I never once dropped anything important in the bilge
The only thing it was ever used for on the boat was when my neighbours in Cherbourg marina lost a plastic bucket over their very high topsides. Because the handle had fallen off they couldn't latch onto it with their boathook. A loan of my grabber was received with gratitude and some bemusement.
Pete
We wished we'd had a magnet on a stick two years ago! We were re-assembling the top end of our Volvo 2003, and one of the washers fell down by the push-rods. We spent the next hour or so groping round the cam-shaft followers trying to recover it. A magnet would have made it easy; of course we didn't have one! Got it in the end, but I bought a magnet on a telescopic stick after that.
Graham_Wright
Well-Known Member
Fuel? Need to cap it but then no more lost goodies.
oldbilbo
...
Oh, yus! I have two of those cheap 'n nasties, and they've hoiked up all sorts of accumulated ferrous bits and bobs. However.....
The little cam plate from the inside of my Jabsco raw water pump is bronze and, despite lengths of sticky tape to try to prevent its escape, it darted off down below and hid behind a bilge pump strum box. Just another fun day in the innards of an old engine! Finally recovered, and refitted. Not without some resistance, of course....
BTW, I found and fitted new screws into the faceplate/body, which are s/s and knurled so I can grip them better than the tiny original-and-chewed bronze machine screws that I needed to remove.
prv
Well-Known Member
Our old boat came with those. Very sensible.
The new boat has the original tiny screws, and I was a bit worried they'd quickly get mangled or lost or both. So I was pleasantly surprised to find that the non-OEM spare impeller I bought on eBay thoughtfully included two spare screws in the pack with the gasket and grease. Didn't need them this time, but if I save them up I will quickly have plenty of spares if ever required.
Pete