People with decks that drain to the bilge...

[Destroyer]

Originally Posted by Curapa

The V that I recently acquired has deck drains that go to the bilge. I originally planned to raise the deck and have it self-bail but I am thinking twice now. Since I am hanging the motor on a bracket I am anticipating some rear squat, I'm wondering,...why not leave it be? It will save me tons of work and I will not have to worry about taking in water at rest.

The boat will be used mostly for inshore/nearshore fishing but I have been known to head out in the nasty stuff. I am worried about a pump or battery failure with a bilge full of water. The boat will never be kept in the water overnight except when beached on the occasional sandbar.


Any pros/cons from you guys with either setup?

I've had several different boats that drained from the deck into the bilge.
Except for one about 30 years ago I've never really had a problem with either a pump or battery failure. But if it really is a concern to you than I'd suggest that you have redundancy. Get two pumps and two batteries.... oh, and a manual pump is always a good thing to have, just in case.
And finally, as a last resort, as long as your engine is running and you can get underway at a reasonably fast speed, and you can get to your bilge plug from inside your boat, you can always remove the bilge plug and let the water be sucked out of the bilge that way. (Of course that ONLY works while underway, but it saved my butt once a long time ago before I knew about having two pumps and two batteries.) Just don't forget to put the plug back in before you slow down.