Self-Bailers

[pauls_SPT]

Hiya,

the boat I'm restoring (www.seaplane-tender.co.uk) has any number of self-bailers poking through the bottom of the hull. I've been wondering what to do with them and had pretty much decided to remove them all and rely on electric pumps, but then I read a report on a boat like mine crossing the channel (during the war) and it says, "tons of spray had fallen into the after well, but had drained away instantly through the scuppers of the self-draining cockpit."

So, now I'm thinking that having self-bailers is a much better idea than having a bilge-pump going flat-out the whole time. But...how do they work? I'll describe what I've got as best as I can; outside the hull is a rectangular bronze fitting with a couple of angled plates either side of a slot, which is athwartships. Inside the boat, there's a pipe coming up from the self-bailer, some of which have a u-bend back down to the hull and some of which don't. They all have a stop-cock on them, though.

If anybody knows, I'll be vey grateful to hear from them.

Thanks,

Paul

 

[Mirelle]

That's interesting!

Our old Firefly has a couple of the old cast bronze pipe (pre-Elvstrom) type, but yours must be about the oldest around. Incidentally, they leak back a bit at slow speeds and are incredibly easy to knock open. They don't have stopcocks - it's down for open and up for shut.

Obvious thought is that watertight integrity of the hull depends on the stopcocks working properly.

 

[pauls_SPT]

Hello Mirelle,

I can't find a photo of one now, but I'll add one to my site at some point (if it ever stops raining!)

The stopcocks were my main worry - the self-bailers themselves are obviously as old as the boat, so 70 years give or take and the stop-cocks probably haven't been touched in the last thirty years at least...

Paul

 

[pauls_SPT]

I finally got round to taking some pictures - here's what they look like...how do they work?

Inside:

Outside:

Thanks,

Paul

 

[burgundyben]

Hi Paul, I was in Falmouth a few weeks ago and looked for your boat but could not really remember where you said she was and I dont know the town so had no luck.

Ref these bailers, the principle is straighforward, they create a vacumn and suck the water out.

I'd remove them and give them a good clean up to make sure they are sound, if sound enough then refit, it looks as if the seacocks are the taper blakes type so a good clean off and gentle lapping together with some valve grinding paste and they should be fine.

If ball or gate valves then replace.

Is that rain water in your bilge? You need to get that out.

EDIT - if you dont understand how a blakes tpaer type sea cock goes together go to your local chandler and ask, they should be happy to take one apart to show you, the taper can get quite stuck and may need a whack from a soft metal punch, something softer than bronze, like brass or ali.

 

[pauls_SPT]

Thanks for that /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

What a pity you couldn't find my boat - it's actually in a yard between Penryn and Falmouth...

That is, I'm ashamed to say, rain-water in my bilge; I've become rather philosophical about the rain-water, though - there's been rain water in the bilges for about twenty years on and off, I reckon, so any rotting it was going to do must have been done by now...after the great tarpaulin-flying-away episode just before Christmas, my boat has been open to the elements - whilst this isn't an ideal situation, it does make working on it a lot easier (and I don't spend the first hour after getting to the yard sorting out the stupid tarpaulin).

I'll have a roof on her by the Summer though, just you wait and see /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif


Paul