Location of bildges

[spareparts]

I was called to check out a 32 Cruiser the other day. The owner had cleaned the airconditioner strainer and didn't tighten the lid properly when he left on Friday, it wasn't leaking that bad, just a good dribble(we found the leak later). When I got there on the following Monday, it had 6 inches of salt water above the salon floor, water was up to the bottom of the manifolds of the engines. I had three 2000 gph pumps, all with independant float switches. One pump was bad, one pump had a bad float switch, the other pump couldn't keep up with the water leak. The water had gotten high enough to short out the battery charger, the last pump had run the house batteries dead. We turned on all the bilge pump switches, none were pumping because of the dead batteries, luckily the engine batteries were still hot. I jumped the engine battery to the house and got two pumps runnning, we added a 3500 gph 110 volt emergency pump plugged into shore power. We were able to shut off all the seacocks, not knowing what was leaking. After about an hour, I think the water had dropped 6 inches, I was able to pull the hose off of the port engine seacock and stuck in the bilge, we fired the engine up and used the engines raw water pump as a "crash pump" and pumped the rest of the water out in no time. So far, this guy has spent about $7000 fixing problems that have come up since then from the salt water intrusion. I can't believe the genset is still working. POint of the story is, bilge pumps are lucky to pump 1/3 of their rating in real world conditions, and they are allways subject to failure and or dead batteries if left unattended. I'm finding they usually only have about a three to four year life span on average. I'd tell your buddy to replace all his pumps with bigger ones, and replace the float switches as well(make sure to use high amp ones)

[Skools Out]

my 21 had a rule 1750 main and a blackmax 800 as back up never have enough of those. my V20 i've got 2 rule 1250 pumps.

[nipper]

Regardless of size and backup (I agree size matters and a backup is a must), I think they both need to be near the stern of the boat, and nothing would be needed up in the bow area given the way a v sits in the water. Am I right on this guys?

[Skools Out]

yes as in most hulls you need them at the transom if there is enough water for a front pump to run it's going to sink, unless it's a non front draining hull like my Sea Ray 250 it has a bilge area in the cabin but the V has a cabin drain tube to the transom.

[spareparts]

on my 79, I relocated the batteries from the aft bilge to where the fishing boxes are, I left one pump in the aft bilge, put one pump in the same area where the batteries are, and plan to put one pump in the area in front of the fuel tank, I figure it that way, any area thats dependant on draining thru a bulkhead will have its own pump

[macojoe]

You guy will remember my V never had pumps for a long time and that is because of them failing all the time! I hate them!
The OX has 2 that came with the boat, one in the rear and one in the cabin, both wired seprate and on float switches. One was messed up already with a bad float switch :( What is so hard about making a good working pump?? They cost enough for these junks!

[spareparts]

Rule has some new "gold" pumps that seem to hold up well, they ought to, they cost enough. I have given up on the "sure bail"(sure fail) switches, they are a good concept, just the wires are not heavy duty enough, they won't hold the amperage of the bigger pumps, Rule has a 20 amp rated float switch that seems to hold up well. I have had good luck with the Johnson pumps, but their switches suck. The smaller Attwood pumps don't seem to be as good as the rules, I like the cartridge concept. It seems every year, they change the base so the last models won't work with the new pumps