Rainwater in Bow Bilge

[Alan_Douville]

Ok, this is probably a stupid question, but when we get heavy rain, I am getting water in my Bow Bilge area. Do you guys see this as well? I redid my caulking around the pilot house, that did not seem to stop anything. Is this normal to come from the windows or anchor wells? I never noticed it before, now I am annoyed.

Thanks

[Tree]

It's coming off the deck Alan. Have a look round the forum as many of us have fitted an additional bilge pump forward to get rid of that water.

[Alan_Douville]

Thanks! I like that answer Just ordered a RULE INDUSTRIES LoPro 900gph Bilge Pump that looks like the ticket... Now to connect the outtake hose to the other Aft pump or the Shower Well? Thoughts?

Thanks again

Alan

[Tree]

I connected mine to the shower sump. Both pumps work on the same circuit but I did install a small hidden foot switch so the shower sump pump can still work independently. That last amount of water in the forward bilge equates to around 8 uk gallons so isn't an insignificant amount of water to have laying about. I fitted mine purely because I got fed up with the smell after a week of the water being in the bilge during the summer months!

[doughat]

I had this problem, and it turned out to be coming from the anchor well. Where the drain holes were drilled through the hull in the well was very close to the bulkhead. There was a void there that allowed the water to seep into the forward bilge area. Easy to fix if that turns out to be the problem.

[Russell]

You might find that pump is too big for your needs. I copied Tree's installation using an Attwood Tsunami 500 GPH, a very small pump costing less than $20. It fits far forward in the bilge and there is no float switch. Its outflow is connected into the shower sump and wired into the same circuit. When the shower switch is turned on the Attwood empties into the sump which pumps the water overboard. Thus no float switch is needed and I find them to be the main problem with pump failure. Also the pump is so small the hose holds it in position so no attachments are needed. You will find this is a very difficult area to reach. I haven't installed a separate on/off switch yet but I will do that in case we ever want to use the shower.

[Jeremyvmd]

im a firm believer there is no such thing as a pump that is "too big". honestly a 1500-2000 gph pump wouldn't be to much. For the rain leaking in its overkill for sure, but when it comes to an issue, you will be happy to have it!
I have two of the low profile 900 rule pumps. one in the front compartments and one just behind the genny (between the seats). The second one was the main pump that kept the boat floating when we had an issue recently after an incident. My boat already had a pump up there (in addition to the shower sump) so I replaced it with the lo pro. the nice thing is they pump out the water to a lower level than regular style pumps. Also you can run them as a sensor pump (they have a build in non float sensor) or just to run every 3 minutes to test for water. I use mine on the "low" setting for the sensor and it works great. If you have the ability I would run a separate through hull - if not then shower sump but put a check valve on the shower sump so the water doesn't backflow.

[Pedro]

Jeremy,I'd like to know which pump was the more important one when you had your shaft seal,incident? Sounds like the mid bilge? I would have figured your aft bilge would have been doing the most work, Pete
Also where does your aft bilge discharge I still can't find a discharge hose on my aft pump, it is way down there between the motor and bulkhead,(very tight)

[Jeremyvmd]

Mid bilge, when at rest the water was rushing forward. Midge bilge pump was keeping the level low enough that it didn't even trigger the rear pump float switch. My rear pump is the remote pump and it comes up right along the bulkhead then along the stringer to the pump. If it's not pourig sat I'll try and get a pic

[Tree]

For this application you don't want a big pump. You already have a big pump in the bow on a separate circuit. Since you are splicing a second pump into the same circuit, the last thing you want is to overload that circuit. Also the pump needs to be less GPH than the pump you have in the shower tray. Otherwise all you will be doing is filling that faster than it can drain. Like Russ mentioned, a smaller pump fits in the V of the hull nicely without the need to fix it in place. Ideally a pencil style pump that you'd use in a water tank would be perfect for getting the very last drop! We are talking about getting the last remain dregs of water from the bilge that the main pump cannot reach.

[Jeremyvmd]

Ahh misunderstood. I assumed we were replacing the existing pump with one that would get the water out. When I was replacing pumps in my boat I replaced the existing canister style rule with the low profile rule and set it up to get all that excess water out (or at least the vast majority of it)

[Tree]

I've replaced all my pumps to low profile ones but that section of the bow just seems to hold those 8 imp gallons, by fitting the small pump it solves the problem.

[Yearwood]

One common source of the water is from rain draining around the deck hatches. The drain fittings to the hoses are of poor quality and leak. In addition, dirt can build up around the drain line opening and in the drain line. Once the line is plugged the water runs over into the bilge.