Bilge thru hull too low

[JBROWETT]

I know some people have probablay had this problem but just bought boat last season and i do alot of fishing on it. I fish lake erie and there is always waves. my problem is the thru haul fittings on my albin 28 te 1997 are very low to the water line( why i dont know) and trolling or at anchor they water back fills them faster than it can bilge out. was wondering how you guys fixed this. i was going to add 1 way valves but alot of people frown on this but i cant go thru this any longer.

[amber jj]

Maybe if you raised the discharge line higher than the trough hull it should stop the back wash.

[RobS]

Water backs up when trolling? Exactly what thru hulls are you referring to?

[JBROWETT]

all the bilge pumps lines that go thru the hault are all on starboard side about 7 inches off water line. bad design in my opinion. when im trolling if the waves are hitting me starboard you can watch the water spash in. i thought i had a leak at first but on calm days it dosent happen. took me several trips to figure out were water is comming from. tried raising lines also but sometime i anchor perch fishing in 4-5 foot waves

[DougSea]

7 inches above the water line should be more than sufficient in the vast majority of conditions. Since you have a particular circumstance that causes a problem you can add a vented loop to the drain/pump lines. The loop allows air into the line when the water flow is backwards and prevents siphon action from bringing water into the boat.

Here's a picture of one.

VentedLoop.jpg

[Russell]

I never had this problem on my 97 28 TE. Every one of those thru hulls has a hose connected to it and any water that entered just ran out when the hull lifted. Either one of your hoses has a leak or a previous owner changed the bilge pump to one that allows backflow. Do you know which one is allowing the water in?

[RobS]

...if the waves are hitting me starboard you can watch the water spash in..

where are you seeing this ?

...i do alot of fishing on it. I fish lake erie and there is always waves.

We fish the ocean a lot on my boat as well as on mhanna's 28TE, never an issue. Something has failed, or has been altered or incorrectly installed by someone. Here's a video clip of some decent rocking while drifting offshore shark fishing with waves coming at me from the starboard side. No water in the bilge. http://youtu.be/IQFgtyOu70Y

[JBROWETT]

thank you guys for your responses i must have something that is hooked up wrong, i will start working on it now that i have a couple ideas on how to fix.

[chesapeake albin]

hey, I have this problem too big time! My hoses are run with no pitch from the shower and bilge straight to the thru hulls, the whole boat floods in the waves, I added check valves but have not had the boat out again sense.

How was this problem fixed on your boat or anyone else's?

Thanks
Travis

[Tree]

Travis, again as Rob and Russ have both previously said, someone has altered the set up. All through hull fittings are either fitted with non return valves or as Doug has posted. We have been in some nasty seas here with our 28 and apart from the odd wave taken over the side, not much water has entered. I get more water in the bilge washing the boat down at the end of the day ( I will get round to sorting the useless deck drains one day!)

[Pitou]

hey, I have this problem too big time! My hoses are run with no pitch from the shower and bilge straight to the thru hulls, the whole boat floods in the waves, I added check valves but have not had the boat out again sense.

How was this problem fixed on your boat or anyone else's?

Thanks
Travis

As mentioned prior: The vented loop pictured in Doug's post were and are on all of my bilge pump drain hoses on my 28 and now my 31 located on the sides of the hull before looping down to the thru hulls. The shower drains go directly to a sump with a pump in it that discharges through its own vented loop and then out. The sink drains are high enough and do not require a vented loop. The vented loops were and are all screwed to a board and then attached using adhesive to the sides of the hull to hold them up. My rear bilge pump vented loop on my 28 had let go and fell to the bilge allowing water to back fill from its transom discharge thru hull and back flow through to the bilge pump and into the bilge. I removed the plastic brush / rod holder panel on the port side for access to the vented loop, cleaned things up, applied new adhesive and cleaned the gasket in the top of the loop. Problem solved. Follow your discharge lines to be sure that these loops were'n't already installed and have not just come unglued and are now sitting below your thru hulls..

[Maye Marie]

I have had the board that the vented loop is fasten to come unglued to the the hull and fall down. Make sure those are attached at attended level. The height of the loop will determine back flow not the location of outlet. The function is to let both sides of loop drain and break suction to prevent siphoning water back in.

[taggteam]

I've got the same issue on my 97. The previous owner installed check valves to stop the backflow of water into the bilge, but in a heavy sea, it comes right in. I don't have photos, but I did look at the bilge hoses in my boat. They go from the through hull exit holes right to the bilge pumps and shower drain. There is no rise in the hose level...so if water gets to the through hull level....it flows right in. It seems to me that a simple fix would be to route the exit hoses in a loop above the waterline. I'm not sure that a vented loop is necessary if that is done. I'm not opposed to installing vented loops...but don't know if it is a necessity. I've got all of the original paperwork, to include plumbing layout....and do not see any vented loops in the layout...that's not to say they shouldn't be there by design. Does anyone have a photo of their bilge hose setup? I'd love to see it before I set out to fix this

[Pitou]

The Albin bilge pump layout drawings posted in the document library were drawn in 1999 and do show vented loops for all bilge pumps. Possibly this was something that Albin corrected in its later years. As pictured, my '02 28TE and '06 31TE have vented loops on all bilge pump set-ups with the exclusion being the manual hand pump.

Here's the link to the document within the library / scroll to page 21 of the PDF:

viewtopic.php?f=41&t=3153