New Dogs and Old Tricks

AMCD300

AMCD300

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Well I'll be blowed......

I had just lifted a 22' Musketeer I am helping to renovate from the water, and needed to clear some accumulated rain water from its rope lockers.

There was I about to get a sponge and bucket when an old Italian club member waltzes up, throws me a 20ft piece of hose, tells me to put it in the locker and wait.....

He goes to the shore hose, turns it on full, connects the end of it to the end my hose and - wait for it - starts to force fresh water into my locker.

Then he lets go of the end.

Lo and behold, this starts a siphon to empty my locker. I just plug the end up with my thumb before moving it to the second locker and bilge.

I had never thought of filling the hose with water to act as the starter pressure for the siphon.

Talk about teaching a new dog old tricks. I had always started a siphon by sucking on the dry end of a hose and hoping not to get a mouthful in the process....

Something to hand down to the kids I suppose......

What 'old salty sea dog' tricks have you picked up over the years that you can share with the new pups on the block (metaphorically, of course...)

Andy
 
Funnily enough, I used the same trick about a month ago near Vigo. Chatting to a guy working on a replica of Tilman's 1906 Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter. She was on the hard and he said that he was having a problem getting a syphon started because the hose was so long and the lift height was also a fair bit.

I turned on a nearby hose, jammed the end against the one he'd left on the ground and called up for him to yell when bubbles stopped inside the tank. Dropped the end back on he ground and bingo, tank draining within a minute.

I was rewarded by a good look around a very solid, well built boat and amazed to find that she was younger than my AWB.
 
Mistroma said:
Funnily enough, I used the same trick about a month ago near Vigo. Chatting to a guy working on a replica of Tilman's 1906 Bristol Channel Pilot Cutter. She was on the hard and he said that he was having a problem getting a syphon started because the hose was so long and the lift height was also a fair bit.

I turned on a nearby hose, jammed the end against the one he'd left on the ground and called up for him to yell when bubbles stopped inside the tank. Dropped the end back on he ground and bingo, tank draining within a minute.

I was rewarded by a good look around a very solid, well built boat and amazed to find that she was younger than my AWB.
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Fantastic - how long have I suffered the old method of siphoning....

Hope he bought you a beer for your troubles.
 
Neil_Y said:
Great idea, but doesn't it mean you might be sucking dirty water through a drinking water pipe?
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No, because to start the siphon one just pulls the two hose ends apart. The fresh water is still on and coming out of the shore hose therefore no dirty water can get up it.

Remember that there are two parts/hoses required. One piece (whatever length) that has an end on board put in the water to be siphoned, and the other which is on the ground outside the boat. You just push the grounded end and the end of the shore hose (venting water) together to make the connection, then pull them apart when the air has stopped bubbling on board.

I would draw a picture if it would help...

I thought it was a fab idea.
 
What 'old salty sea dog' tricks have you picked up over the years that you can share with the new pups on the block (metaphorically, of course...)

Andy

Don't get stuck with syphoning! The OP asked for cunning tricks to share like (my offer) tapping a starter with a hammer while turning the key to overcome a sticky solenoid or worn brushes to get you home...

Nick
 
AMCD300 said:
No, because to start the siphon one just pulls the two hose ends apart. The fresh water is still on and coming out of the shore hose therefore no dirty water can get up it.

Remember that there are two parts/hoses required. One piece (whatever length) that has an end on board put in the water to be siphoned, and the other which is on the ground outside the boat. You just push the grounded end and the end of the shore hose (venting water) together to make the connection, then pull them apart when the air has stopped bubbling on board.

I would draw a picture if it would help...

I thought it was a fab idea.
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Teach me to read the post, I thought he was using the shoreside hose to set up the siphon and then taking hose off the tap! doh... two hoses works.
 
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Fantasie 19 said:
I remember my mate doing that on his old Moggy Minor.... also worked on his fuel pump..... :D
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As a plod, many years ago, I used my truncheon on the starter of my Panda car for the same purpose - the only time it ever came out of my trousers* in anger.



*For the benefit of the fnarr fnarr brigade, back then, plod trousers had a special pocket down the outside of the right leg to hold a truncheon, which was a lump of turned hardwood about a foot long and 1 1/2" in diameter.
 
I picked up a tip a few years ago for greasing a Volvo seal and it was so obvious once pointed out. The dealer showed me the nice little greasing tool when I bought the boat. You clip it over the shaft, push it into the seal and squeeze grease through a gap. Looks easy enough until you try it.

Then a nice man mentioned the real tool for the job, a straw. Squeeze a few CCs of grease into the straw, flatten the end and push it along the shaft and into the seal. Then run a pencil or screwdriver along the straw towards the seal. This squeezes grease out of the straw and inside the seal. Simple, quick and you can even do a pretty good estimate of volume used (straw diam. & length).
 
I have got out of a couple of situations with an old sea dog and an even older unidentified/able engine by hitting it with the, now christened, holy hammer.

My only tip, so far, is not to worry too much as it is likely not as bad as it seems, will get better, and will make a good story.

Ps. With a syphon you just need a hose of water so you can carry a full hose from anywhere. Put a thumb on either end, carry it to where needed, and then stick one end in the water and the other somewhere lower. The Romans created reverse syphons across gorges that an aqueduct would not span (just saying)
 
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Another useful siphon dodge to move diesel from a can to your main tank. Set the siphon up, one end in the can, the other end in the fuel intake. Then take a piece of clean rag (hanky) and seal the remaining gap at the point where the hose enters the can, leaving a small gap into which you blow. Presto you have a flowing siphon, and no need to take a mouthful of diesel.
 
Fantasie 19 said:
I remember my mate doing that on his old Moggy Minor.... also worked on his fuel pump..... :D
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SWMBO had a moggie with the usual sticky fuel pump. It failed one day going through a set of traffic light controlled roadworks, much to the annoyance of the bus driver waiting to come the other way. She grabbed her hammer, opened the bonnet, thumped the fuel pump, got back in and drove on. The bus driver's jaw fell so far he may have dislocated it!
 
AMCD300 said:
What 'old salty sea dog' tricks have you picked up over the years that you can share with the new pups on the block (metaphorically, of course...)

Andy
Click to expand...

When in Port Erin, (Isle of Man), last summer, I used a trick used by the small boat fishermen I'd seen earlier in Port St. Mary.

Port Erin has a fairly narrow west facing entrance and the North sea swell comes rolling in with the slightest of west winds.

We were on one of the only two buoys there and I tied us off on the buoy with a bowline inside a loop of plastic pipe to avoid

too much damage to the rope. I let out around 40' of the rope (a little longer than the overall length of our boat) which had

been bought specially for use in the Caledonian Canal. Before making the rope off on the bow cleat, I ran a large container

full of water down the rope, shaking the rope about until the container was about halfway down.

This provided enough of a dampening effect to slow the rope from going out tight whilst the boat raised and lowered over the

incoming swell. In fact it worked so well that we not only experienced no snatching or tugging it but reduced our pitching too.
 
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Some great tips there I have to say. The dampening effect is similar to a weighted device I saw on the forum once which was sent over midships, and which had a hinged wooden 'plank' to counter the swell upwards, and which hinged to drop again on the roll back down.

I looked for the original post but could not find it. This sounds like a much easier way to achieve the same effect.

@pmagowan - another way to achieve the say effect, especially if there is not another hose to fill the one on board 'in-situ'. Thank you.

@Finbar - so simple yet so effective. Thanks.

@Thistle - I owned an old Toyota Corolla that needed the same trick applying to the sticky starter motor solenoid. Unfortunately it only seemed to stick when I was taking my (then) girlfriend out for dinner - she never minded jumping out in her heels to give it a whack... Thankfully it never put her off me either and she is now SWMBO.

I do wonder, however, if giving her intensive 'hammer training' may come back to haunt me one day.... ;)

Andy
 
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