I am sinking!

T

TonyBuckley

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Joined
15 May 2006
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689
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Boat is in Brighton Marina
www.icloud.com
OK, bit of an exaggeration, but today I went out into the Solent single handed in my 35 footer and had an interesting experience.

It was a lovely F3 in the sun, and there's me sitting at the helm drinking coffee and having a fag (perfection) when I heard and saw the bilge outlet start gushing. Didn't think too much of it, but twenty seconds later, off she goes again. And this repeated every twenty seconds.

I had a look down below to see where the ingress was coming from, greased the stern gland, looked everywhere but could not find anything amiss.

I was heading back to the marina by this time so planned to moor up and have a deeper look and if a disaster call up the SeaLift for an inspection lift.

I moored and switched off the engine only to hear a noise never heard before on this boat. A deep and loud vibration. So again, look around and followed my ears into the heads where I had stupidly not looked before.

Only to find the sink tap on full flow which had overflowed to the heads deck and clearly drained into the bilges. I have never previously got the sink tap to work (job 1,276 on the list) but it had spontaneously engaged the pump and the tap had been left open. Why did it overflow? Cos I have never bothered to open that seacock as the tap was inoperative.

Massive sigh of relief time!

So, I am left wondering how on earth a very rusty pump that I thought was kaput suddenly started to work. Interestingly the water pump is only slightly less powerful than the bilge pump - I am glad it was not more powerful. My fresh water tanks hold 45 gallons and I haven't checked to see how full they are now, but on the bright side the bilges have had a jolly good rinse!

Tony
 
Well, looking on the bright side, you could not have sunk - the water was already on the boat - it was just being redistributed!
 
Once had my toilet do the same thing-it had never had an antsiphon fitted.Exactly the same situation with auto bilge pump switching on and pumping out what normally is a very dry boat.In my case I had just motored off my mooring so hooked back up and found problem.
 
sailorman said:
Always taste the water :o
Click to expand...
I had an elderly, Italian lady as a neighbour boat-owner a couple of years ago and she suddenly found water aboard and went into panic mode, thinking she was on the verge of sinking. She had phoned for the yard to send someone for a tow and a lift-out before the ultimate happened and was impatiently waiting for them to arrive.

As we had had some heavy rainfalls over the past days I asked if the water was salty or not. "How on earth should I know that?" she asked with quite a pitying glare. I replied that one merely dips a finger in the water and tastes it; that with water in the bilges, that should always be done immediately to ascertain if the water was coming from below, when it could be serious.

She looked at me in shock and amazement and told me that I must be mad - if it was coming from below it would be from the marina ... "Just look at that water, you could die from drinking that".

She paid for an expensive lift out and back in to find she had a leaking deck fitting.
 
...and the bilges washed out, too!

Actually it's part of my schedule to drain the tank into the bilges and pump out. Then a little water and Milton to try and leave everything clean.

Rob.
 
Barnac1e said:
I had an elderly, Italian lady as a neighbour boat-owner a couple of years ago and she suddenly found water aboard and went into panic mode, thinking she was on the verge of sinking. She had phoned for the yard to send someone for a tow and a lift-out before the ultimate happened and was impatiently waiting for them to arrive.

As we had had some heavy rainfalls over the past days I asked if the water was salty or not. "How on earth should I know that?" she asked with quite a pitying glare. I replied that one merely dips a finger in the water and tastes it; that with water in the bilges, that should always be done immediately to ascertain if the water was coming from below, when it could be serious.

She looked at me in shock and amazement and told me that I must be mad - if it was coming from below it would be from the marina ... "Just look at that water, you could die from drinking that".

She paid for an expensive lift out and back in to find she had a leaking deck fitting.
Click to expand...
A mate of mine had a leaking water tank hatch :)He panicked as well & over supper i asked "have you tasted it" he had not. He realised he was a tw at & laughed
 
sailorman said:
A mate of mine had a leaking water tank hatch :)He panicked as well & over supper i asked "have you tasted it" he had not. He realised he was a tw at & laughed
Click to expand...

We had a small puddle in the bilge close to the holding tank recently - I chickened out of applying the taste test to that, I'm afraid...

I dried it out and it has not reappeared, so I'm currently working on the assumption that it was a spill or leak through a hatch left open.
 
now weve dropped the level of conversation ;)


I was racing my cat down at largs when a wave came over the tramp and as it drained left something I thought I recognised , yup after picking it up and sniffing my guess was correct , twas a bit of tom tit !!!!,


to balance the tale and be fair to largs later in the day similar happened again , but this time a live wee fish :)
 
Sat in marina with water hose happily filling the water tank when the bilge pump started ... and didn't stop ! Normally when the tank is full the water comes back up the filler tube and overflows. This time it took a quick look in the bilge to see the water tank breather pipe was the source and was simply dumping fresh water back into the bilge as fast as the tank was filling. What I cant fathom is why its never done that before, perhaps it was blocked with something by the previous owner that had now been flushed out. So, new procedure for filling is to watch the water indicator on the side of the tank from now on.
 
winsbury said:
What I cant fathom is why its never done that before...
Click to expand...

That's the thing with my water pump... no idea why it suddenly decided to come back to life. And on a closer inspection, it is so overpowered to be ridiculous - fills the sink to the brim in four seconds.

But as someone says above, a great way to flush and clean. Couldn't face emptying with the foot pump.

Of my many listed jobs to do, I have now marked many as "It will fix itself" :-).
 
winsbury said:
Sat in marina with water hose happily filling the water tank when the bilge pump started ... and didn't stop ! Normally when the tank is full the water comes back up the filler tube and overflows. This time it took a quick look in the bilge to see the water tank breather pipe was the source and was simply dumping fresh water back into the bilge as fast as the tank was filling. What I cant fathom is why its never done that before, perhaps it was blocked with something by the previous owner that had now been flushed out. So, new procedure for filling is to watch the water indicator on the side of the tank from now on.
Click to expand...
Reminds me of a Mike Peyton cartoon.
A boat with a hosepipe attached is very low in the water, while the owner drinks tea on a neighbour's boat.
 
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