Craig,
SailFar is indeed a lively one with great posts by many sailors including yourself.
One day when my credentials are in order I'll see if I can rejoin the SAIL FAR community.
By then I will have learned not to talk at length - but in short.
Don't know who gets credit for the bilge pump pull board idea. It's now OURS! Imco it is a great solution for our narrow bilges. Happy to add two more cents.
Like great music tunes, we can build on them and improvise. (I'm on the slide whistle!)
Capt Pauley has a version. Don't know about MaineSail.
More the merrier!
Maybe my contribution to tidying up the sump is a method of making the slide board holders that are merely mishmash* cleats pasted onto the sides of the bilge.
Rediculous simple to make if you have the polyethylene sheet to construct the molds.
The three polyethylene rails that make the mold-form are 1/2" tall. The width at 'top' 1/2". The base 5/8". Tablesaw blade set off square a couple of degrees and the material just run through to make these forms. As cast, the ridges are 1/2" wide at top, the 5/8" width is pasted to the hull. The space between two ridges is those dimensions inverted.
Cut extra 'rail' pieces and used them as inverted spacers. To build the mold-form, screwed 1/4" polyethylenne to the 'bottom' wider side of the rails. The pics above should be helpfull.
Dropped the spacers out and cut the long mold in half, cut 45 degrees at the ends of the two forms on the chopsaw and screwed on short 1/4" thick endpieces to tie the form together. The forms you see in the fotos are about 12" long.
This was made from 1/2" and 1/4" scrap at hand. Could use thin ply for the 1/4" piece with release material on the inside like seranwrap or mylar.
Certainly is possible to make this simple form with plywood and wood strips using wax as the release. Polyethylene sheet is available from TAP Plastics and McMasterCarr. 5/8" #6 woodscrews.
When seated the pump pullboard is jammed tight - when it's lifted, it very soon is free of the confines of the new guides.
This is good because the pull board wants to be tilted and even turned out of the hole ASAP.
There must be a dozen more ways to hold the board, whether plastic or wood strip.
The bilge in the Ariel gets narrower going aft - that means the pull board is at a shorter angle than right angle to the hull sides. I got lucky in this improv because it worked out that there was just enuf room for the 3/8" lexan to track and end up tight in the slot because of the truncated shape of the space between the guides.
It also turned out that the sides of the keel way down in there are pretty straight and the straight molds fit flat.
[The polyethylene strips that make up the mold are quite bendy. Imco it would be entirely possible to bend these molds against mildly curved hull sides. You'd need a good way to hold them when filled with mishmash solidly in place against the hull until set.]
Used doorskin 'L' jigs to hold and position the molds where they had to be, And relative to each other..... got lucky!
Used some "60 Second" Devcon blister pack epoxy - havn't seen that stuff befor - couple dabs
and the doorskin jigs were stuck in place. Pretty good glue that: after set, the ply pieces were popped off with a chisel and the carbide scrapper got the 60 second off. Right....longer than 60 sec.
How often do we get to hand hold an epoxied piece in place long enuf to have it set? 60 secs gives a bit of sliding adjustment time to get the jigs just so.
Could have used good old double side carpet tape but risked it pulling away at the wrong time!
There is just enough outward lean to the hull sides so that the goop filled molds rested in the minimalist jigs nicely without having to be jammed in place.
But still pushed in a large ball of used plastic film between the molds. Nothing moved.
Thanks Jerry!
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*mishmash: a fairly stiff mix of 2-part laminating epoxy, chopped strand, and fumed silica. Befor positioning the loaded molds on the jigs, scrub the prepared areas with a bristle brush and liquid epoxy. Not too much, just prime. If it is wet, wipe it 'dry' with paper towel. Insurance that
the guides will bond to the hull. If you've slathered the temporary plywood jig holders, pop them off before the epoxy fully sets so that they don't become permanent!
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Went with Shurflo because around the net there aren't many complaints about them I could find. The 1500 on the board has 6' of head
Recently Practical Sailor did a comparison test of submersible bilge pumps - Shurflo came out on top I believe. Surprisingly so did a Rule. The philosophy of the two pump pull-board is a good one (altho my interpretation may be off). And the concept seems to be specifically designed FOR the Ariel/Commander sump area. Any Alberg.
A smaller, cheaper pump sits close to the bottom and does all the menial work. It's not THAT cheap but certainly cheaper than the bigger one mounted above it.... that is set up with a highwater alarm that has a remote dial and mute button.
In theory the big one is the standby and will always be fresh and eager when needed. It would be possible to to mount an even larger pump, but I worry what the draw would be - not that it would matter when trying to stay afloat in the middle of the ocean.
I can't see WHERE even one traditional float switch can be put into our sump? That's why we went with the WaterWitch system. Both pumps should have a manual toggle over-ride in case the WaterWitch sensors don't work. There may be other digital systems out there. Hoses from a couple manual lift pumps also need access in those tight quarters. There's only room for hose ends in litlgull's sump.
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If the smaller Shurflo's exit hose is up into the cockpit, that hose can have a little bit of out-of-sight-out-of-mind location to it.
BUT, the hose that leads the big pump overboard, no matter where the thru-hull exit is in the topsides, it will have a vacuum breaker and
also an accessible SEACOCK to shut the hole. Where and how has not been easy to solve. Has to be visually recognizable and easy to maintain & work the lever. Probably the cockpit port locker which gets fairly regular use.