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Boat Down @ Reedham :-(

RumPunch

By RumPunch
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Smoggy

Smoggy

Posted
Posted

It only takes the wrong skin fitting under water to start a syphon in, more likely on a hire boat than a sea capable boat but still very possible,  also bobbing on the quay edge can cause damage to hull or stern gear especially on that concrete edge.

Whatever happened its not good news for the owner, hope he gets something sorted.

 

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Troyboy

Troyboy

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Smoggy said:

It only takes the wrong skin fitting under water to start a syphon in, more likely on a hire boat than a sea capable boat but still very possible,  also bobbing on the quay edge can cause damage to hull or stern gear especially on that concrete edge.

Whatever happened its not good news for the owner, hope he gets something sorted.

 

I might be being a bit thick Smoggy, but what do you mean by the wrong skin fitting. 

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Smoggy

Smoggy

Posted
Posted
26 minutes ago, Troyboy said:

I might be being a bit thick Smoggy, but what do you mean by the wrong skin fitting. 

Any skin fitting that can let water into the hull, may be a bilge pump outlet that can syphon back once submerged or a sink drain, once the boat tips far enough they are all wrong skin fittings if open at the other end.

Also engine bay air vents can be the problem if in a bad position, they are all fine at a normal attitude but when hulls are tipped to the wrong extent they are seriously comprimised.

Bilge pump outlets can be fine submerged with a good goose neck up to the point the pump kicks in, then the pipe gets filled with water and the syphon can begin unless the gooseneck has a vented loop, my boat would fall foul of these issues for sure and it has taken way more angles that the broads can throw at it in regular use but one hooked on the edge up it's a different matter.

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Admiraldingley

Admiraldingley

Posted
Posted
10 hours ago, Smoggy said:

It only takes the wrong skin fitting under water to start a syphon in, more likely on a hire boat than a sea capable boat but still very possible,  also bobbing on the quay edge can cause damage to hull or stern gear especially on that concrete edge.

Whatever happened its not good news for the owner, hope he gets something sorted.

 

The warden warned me a few weeks back that it was going to be a high tide, but I fell asleep before sorting out the fenders, it took some gouges our of the paintwork, it made me realize just how easy that concrete can gouge chunks out of fibreglass.
I saw one couple had made a custom line that they tie from one post to the next, it has fenders & weights that just drop over the side.
I picked up some scrap fenders from Doug the facebook fender man so I can make one.

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Smoggy

Smoggy

Posted
Posted

For places like reedham I have hollow rigid plastic pipe that slot together and fix to the handrails,  it's 63mm mains water pipe with stainless spigots at the joins, the rope goes through to the bottom and they don't float.

They fold up for stowage but give protection from handrails down to 18" below chines so on high tides ensure the boat stays over the river.

Hard plastic is far better than concrete.

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Troyboy

Troyboy

Posted
Posted

Thanks Smoggy. It makes sense now. I've always thought of single bilge pumps as having all of your eggs in one basket. Do owners get them changed regularly or are they very reliable for a long time.

I never liked mooring at Reedham in my own hoat because of the concrete quayside. 

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dom

dom

Posted
Posted
6 minutes ago, Troyboy said:

Thanks Smoggy. It makes sense now. I've always thought of single bilge pumps as having all of your eggs in one basket. Do owners get them changed regularly or are they very reliable for a long time.

In my experience, surveyors tend to recommend fitting a high capacity manual pump in addition to an automatic electric. I always found that a bit odd - if a pump's going to fail, inevitably, it's more likely it'll do so when the boat's unattended and there's no-one to man the 2nd pump.

The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to fit a second auto pump, with a float switch which triggers a fair bit higher than the main pump. Cable it directly to the starter battery, using slightly over-rated cable. Add a fuse rated just below the cable capacity, ensuring it's significantly higher than the current rating for the pump.

That seems to provide a couple of benefits - a fail safe pump, which will keep running irrespective of any main bus or switch panel failure - but also a secondary pump which will join in parallel with the main pump if you suffer a more substantial leak. The overcapacity cable and high rating fuse is intentional, so the unit tends to keep running even if overheating. If your boat's sinking, the slight risk of fire is probably not worth worrying about!

Given the relatively small cost involved, anything I own is getting something along those lines. Years ago, I saw an all female crew on a hire boat hole their hull on wooden stakes near Horning church and it's amazing how quickly a boat can go down. Dom Buckley also recommended "a pair of stout buckets should be carried at all times" on one survey, which I think is fairly sound advice too.

 

 

 

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Troyboy

Troyboy

Posted
Posted
46 minutes ago, dom said:

In my experience, surveyors tend to recommend fitting a high capacity manual pump in addition to an automatic electric. I always found that a bit odd - if a pump's going to fail, inevitably, it's more likely it'll do so when the boat's unattended and there's no-one to man the 2nd pump.

The most sensible recommendation I've seen is to fit a second auto pump, with a float switch which triggers a fair bit higher than the main pump. Cable it directly to the starter battery, using slightly over-rated cable. Add a fuse rated just below the cable capacity, ensuring it's significantly higher than the current rating for the pump.

That seems to provide a couple of benefits - a fail safe pump, which will keep running irrespective of any main bus or switch panel failure - but also a secondary pump which will join in parallel with the main pump if you suffer a more substantial leak. The overcapacity cable and high rating fuse is intentional, so the unit tends to keep running even if overheating. If your boat's sinking, the slight risk of fire is probably not worth worrying about!

Given the relatively small cost involved, anything I own is getting something along those lines. Years ago, I saw an all female crew on a hire boat hole their hull on wooden stakes near Horning church and it's amazing how quickly a boat can go down. Dom Buckley also recommended "a pair of stout buckets should be carried at all times" on one survey, which I think is fairly sound advice too.

 

 

 

Thanks dom. I thought that a second standby pump would be a necessity for piece of mind. Your comment about 2 stout buckets made me smile. I need 1 stout back to use them.

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BroadAmbition

BroadAmbition

Posted
Posted

During ‘B.A’s restoration we lifted all the hull skin fittings higher up  from the waterline (apart from the raw water engine coolant intakes obviously)

Then for our sea trip to the Thames I fitted in line non return valves for the two bilge pumps.  Since then we have added two float switch bilge pumps. There is no way of switching these off other than disconnecting the wiring (fuse protected)

The engine raw water intakes are protected by two s/steel sea cocks 90deg handle type

The exhaust has a collector flap valve chamber just inboard of the Transom. 
 

I’ve done what I can

Griff

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ExSurveyor

ExSurveyor

Posted
Posted

I have the original bilge pump on Whitey, it is mechanical one with the diaphragm visible and separate float, it is noisy. I check it every visit to make sure it works. I have wired it to the inverter battery as that is rarely used.

I fitted a second high volume modern bilge pump and float lower down and wired that to the double house batteries. Both are fitted with non return valves.

The Sheerline had a jammed float and flat battery during my survey, this is now replaced and wired to the new double house bank.

I don't think pumps are an area to save money on.

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annv

annv

Posted
Posted

When i had my new boat CE certified i had to have three bilge pumps one auto. one electric Mobile one and a manual operated one adjacent to the auto one. if the boat sinks while you are not on board it's not life threating, if on board you have two additional pumps that are manually operated. John

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annv

annv

Posted
Posted

Hi Cabby I use two lengths of plastic hose enclosed in foam sheath with a rope at one end these sink down vertically well below water line and will stop me over topping when tides are over topping the bank/Quay heading they take up very little space as they are only 2 inches dia and two foot long plus rope and stop the hull from scratching long enough until tide drops. John

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