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Thread: Bilge Pump Discussions

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    McHenry, IL, but sail out of Racine WI
    Posts
    626
    One comment about your bilge pump before giving the possible answer to your problem, which I too experienced. The first time I sailed the boat water was up to the berths and we were headed right in to the beach, wondering if we would make it before our craft went to the bottom.

    As for the one way valve in the bilge pump, the word on the street is that a one way valve in a bilge pump line is an absolute, unequivical NO-NO. Translated - serious mistake. You must have a vented loop. The one way valve may or may not work when you most need it.

    I have never totally solved the problem of water coming in from the engine lazarette as much as I have tried. My situation also, is that the leakage happens when the boat is healed over. Nothing is wet in either of the bench lockers or anywhere else. The water problem was there before I had bilge pumps (my bilge pump had been a Thirsty Mate).

    Here is what I have done, with generally good results (Solsken is 1962 version). The bulknead has a joint that corresponds with the floor of the lazarette. I sealed that with every thing, thinking that may have been the cause of the leak (and it may have been one of the sources). I double checked all screw holes into the bulkhead, making sure there was either a screw or it had been sealed. I sealed both sides of the bulkhead, thinking there might be a small leak. Things did improve, and the water stopped coming in from the starboard side, but the port still leaked. Renmember that the plywood used has water paths in the laminations, and water coming in at one point can just follow a lamination joing anc go right out the bottom.

    Then, VOILA, I took a garden hose and forced water against the bulkhead top (where it meets the deck - particularly in the area of the scupper). Water poured through, down the back of the bench lazarette and into the bilge (the reason nothing was wet was that the water all stayed at the stern end of the lazarette before going into the bilge at the rudder post).

    But I could not see any opening. I took a flashlight and still could not see an opening. Next, came the Dremel tool, and instantly it went through the "seal" between the deck and the bulkhead and I found a sizeable gap between the bulkhead and the deck. When sailing with the boat healed over, water sloshes up against that joint and pours in through unknown pinhead holes in the factory seal. This is an impossible area to get to (both sides of the bulkhear), and I suspect they had the same problem at Pearson.

    But, that is where I suggest you look - but you might try the all around the bulkhead as well. In otherwords, don't trust that the bulkhead is indeed waterproof just because it looks like a barrier.

    Hope this helps.
    Last edited by Theis; 07-15-2004 at 05:52 AM.

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