[Public-List] Bilge pump question

[George Dinwiddie]

The Rochets wrote:
> I am planning to install an electrical bilge pump to supplement the  
> manual Whale Gusher 10 that came with the boat.
> 
> I do not like holes in the hull (even above the waterline) and I am  
> wondering if there is any safe way to connect the electrical pump's  
> outlet hose to the manual pump's outlet hose (just above its thru- 
> hull), so I can get by with the existing thru-hull?

Bernard, I put such an arrangement on Calypso.  Our bilge pump 
through-hull is on the starboard sternquarter.  I put a T fitting on 
that throughhull and attached the manual hose to pump straight through. 
  The side entry of the T is arranged to point uphill when the boat is 
on port tack, thereby ensuring that it stays above the waterline even 
when the boat is being driven hard.

It's a long way from the bilge to this throughhull.  The smallest pumps 
(500-800 GPH) won't make it, and the one I have (1500 GPH, I think) 
barely does.  It certainly won't pump the rated flow.  This bilge pump 
is a convenience, not a lifesaver.

I believe the outlet hose from the pump is 1" ID, but I reduced that to 
1/2" for the run up to the throughhull.  This does not reduce the water 
flow (because the hose is not the limiting factor), but does reduce the 
amount of water that flows back down into the bilge when the pump shuts 
off.  I elected not to use a check valve, feeling that it's just one 
more thing to jam up.

  - George

-- 
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   When I remember bygone days                         George Dinwiddie
   I think how evening follows morn;            gdinwiddie at alberg30.org
   So many I loved were not yet dead,           http://www.Alberg30.org
   So many I love were not yet born.
                'The Middle' by Ogden Nash
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