bilge hose route

[Barquito]

My boat only had a manual bilge pump, with the hose exiting out the transom. I installed an electric pump, and temporarily had the hose draining into the sink. Would is be safe to perminantly attach the bilge pump hose to a tailpiece on the sink drain. Should be above waterline. The drain would act as a siphon break.

[chef2sail]

Thru hull above the water line would be the best. Would the sink drain if the boat was filling up with water?

Dave

[jjablonowski]

I, too, installed an electric bilge pump, with the intake higher than the manual one's. It's strictly an emergency backup, as I dry out my bilge with the manual.

The electric pump exits into the COCKPIT, whence it drains through the transom scuppers.

The thinking is that, if my feet suddenly get wet, it's an alarm for an immediate problem.

[Barquito]

Thru hull above the water line would be the best. Would the sink drain if the boat was filling up with water?

Seems to me the sink would keep draining up until the water level got up to the edge of the sink (yikes). Although that would be much less when the boat is heeled.

The thinking is that, if my feet suddenly get wet, it's an alarm for an immediate problem

I like that. Actually, you should aim it up a little so you get the splash to the face.

I don't really want to reinvent the wheel here. The sink was just a convenient through hull. What is a normal way to tie into an existing bilge pump hose?

[sawingknots]

i too run my bilge pump into the cockpit,i couldn't bring myself into drilling another hole thu the hull,not an ideal solution but is there ever

[jjablonowski]

"What is a normal way to tie into an existing bilge pump hose?"

You can use a Y-fitting.

But then you've got to consider that some of the flow may return to the bilge from the other pump hose. So you should probably install a couple of one-way valves. But then you've got to consider that those valves will impede/diminish flow, likely worse than corrugated hose.

And, like Sawingknots, you've got to ask whether you Really Want to drill another hole in your hull.

Which is why my second bilge pump goes into the cockpit. Shorter hose length (for less resistance) than going all the way back to the transom. Large scuppers ensure quick draining overboard. No concern about heeling waterline as with side-mounted through-hulls.

[sawingknots]

a bit off topic,sorry,but when i first bought my py26 the po had removed the inboard and the bilge pump outlet was just above the water line,after installing a yanmar inboard i was rudely awakened at 3am with water almost upto my bunk apparently the extra weight put the thuhull below the water line and the bilge pump syphoned back,luckily i was aboard,i could have installed a vented loop but hmmm murphy's law

[mitiempo]

Last year a neighbor's boat almost sank at the dock. His bilge pump was T'eed into his sink drain. Once the boat was down a bit the water came in the drain. We put electric pumps on board and couldn't see why it was coming up so slowly until we realized where the water was coming in. It's a bad idea.

Each bilge pump should have its own outlet. There may come a time when you need them both at once.

[Barquito]

Thanks for the input everyone. I think I will give the cockpit exit some thought.

This is a little weird, but, I was also trying to think of some very simple mechanical way of indicating the bilge pump has cycled. I can view the outside of my boat (that is 1.5 hours away) on a web cam. It would be cool to be able to have a flag flip up, or something that would indicate the upper bilge pump has fired-up.

[jrd22]

I've thought about having the main bilge pump exit into the cockpit (it uses the same hose as the manual bilge pump now and exits a thru hull near the transom, bad idea from PO) but if you take a wave and fill the cockpit? In a bad situation where the pumps are running regularly AND you are taking water into the cockpit your bilge pump would essentially be useless unless your scuppers were large enough to handle both sources of water, or you have an open transom.