Innaccessible Pearson 26 Bilge

[SURV69]

My 1974 P26 bilge(at least the lowest part), is unaccessible.

AFTER pumping out my bilge the best I can, I can carefully fit my hand(barely) to the port-side of the fin-keel bolts and seem to have about 1-2 inches of water. I can barely see the water, but my hand(lying flat), is completely covered.

I had always thought that the lowest part of a bilge was always accessible for drainage purposes.

AS it is, the only way I can get the water out is with a self-priming pump that will pump water from a small hose. Something I've never seen marine bilge pumps do(at least not the cheaper ones).

Is this inaccessible water recess normal in a Pearson?

[GeorgeDuBose]

I, too own a P26. I would hardly call the space around the keel socket a bilge, but I guess it is. I never thought about the water in the bilge, just kept a sponge handy and gave a wipe to collect any rainwater that found it's way there.

I did drill drain holes in all the lockers to facilitate draining. The boat seems to have a leaky join at the rubrail and when the rail was in the water for some time, the water would wind up in the bilge.

When storing for the winter, I always set the poppits so she would drain all the water to the bilge behind the keel socket. I will add a bilge drain and remove the plug for future winters.

George DuBose
S/V Sklark P-36-1 #58

[SailorMitch]

could a shop vac suck it up?

[SURV69]

I'm talking about what appears to be a substantial amount of bilge-water.

I can fit my hand in and the hand is completely covered . . . but I can't see how big the flooded area is.

ALL I KNOW, is that I want a dry boat and find it odd to have an unaccessible bilge area.

[SailorMitch]

still try the shop vac(Icommonly use one to get water out of the very shallow bilge of my 1988 P-33-2. also check dan pfeiffer's website www.pearsonjnfo.nst. he owned s P26 for years and has considerable there about the boat. you also can email him to ask about it from his site.