Water in cabin bilge

[ditchcrawler]

8 hours ago, Laurie.Booth said:

I've been advised against putting in an automatic pump.

By whom ?

[WotEver]

4 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

By whom ?

And why?

[Arthur Marshall]

I don't know who mine was made by - I got it nearly thirty years ago & the guy I bought it from didn't know either. 

We basically cut the old deck off, welded a strip round the hull higher up and welded the deck back on. Had to make a new door & a step inside. The water tank is the chunk of boat under the deck and was a nightmare to clean and paint originally as it's about seven foot long and was only about a foot high (access through a two foot square hatch in the deck) , much easier now... 

Edited October 8, 2017 by Arthur Marshall

[Laurie Booth]

1 hour ago, ditchcrawler said:

By whom ?

Geoff Richings

1 hour ago, WotEver said:

And why?

Due to the fact that the pump may turn faulty.

[Ssscrudddy]

My water leak turned out to be an expansion tank which I didnt even know was there which had corroded through. Took 8 months to find, & was very intermittent. Sometimes the pump would go off, sometimes it wouldn't.

[MtB]

On 08/10/2017 at 23:12, Laurie.Booth said:

Geoff Richings

Due to the fact that the pump may turn faulty.

 

That doesnt seem Much of a reason to me. 'Bilge' in fact! All equipment in a boat 'may turn faulty', and often does. 

A better reason might be because an automatic bilge pump masks a leaking hull, keeping on pumping out the incoming water possibly without you noticing. Then one day it fails and the boat sinks. 

Not a valid reason even so IMO. 

[Laurie Booth]

41 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

That doesnt seem Much of a reason to me. 'Bilge' in fact! All equipment in a boat 'may turn faulty', and often does. 

A better reason might be because an automatic bilge pump masks a leaking hull, keeping on pumping out the incoming water possibly without you noticing. Then one day it fails and the boat sinks. 

Not a valid reason even so IMO. 

I don't claim to understand electrics. Going by memory it went along the lines of.

The pump getting an electrical fault causing galvanic reaction to the hull etc.. 

[Neil2]

25 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

That doesnt seem Much of a reason to me. 'Bilge' in fact! All equipment in a boat 'may turn faulty', and often does. 

A better reason might be because an automatic bilge pump masks a leaking hull, keeping on pumping out the incoming water possibly without you noticing. Then one day it fails and the boat sinks. 

Not a valid reason even so IMO. 

I think what's behind this is the principle that you shouldn't be reliant upon an automatic bilge pump, better to eliminate any possible cause of the cabin bilge filling with water.

However, I often wonder what owners of wet bilge boats do/did.  There are still some of these about and I note many of them don't have cratch/cockpit covers.  There's a risk the pump might fail, but more likely it will run down the battery if the boat is left for any length of time.  Many wooden boats have the same issue, and a lot of grp boats seem to operate with a permanently wet bilge as well.  Maybe the owners of such boats get used to the bilge filling up with water so long as it doesn't get deep enough to affect the actual cabin?

 

     

[MtB]

On 11/10/2017 at 09:37, Laurie.Booth said:

I don't claim to understand electrics. Going by memory it went along the lines of.

The pump getting an electrical fault causing galvanic reaction to the hull etc.. 

 

In which case I don't think Geoff Richings has any more of a clue about 'electrics' than you!

A good example of how bollux delivered with an air of authority can really take people in. Something I occasionally practice myself before anyone else points this out 

[Laurie Booth]

1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

In which case I don't think Geoff Richings has any more of a clue about 'electrics' than you!

A good example of how bollux delivered with an air of authority can really take people in. Something I occasionally practice myself before anyone else points this out 

You're probable right, I'm the one that might be talking bollux, bare in mind I'm trying to recall a conversation that took place over 15 years ago, so I might have misquoted Geoff.