sailing casita

It’s about time we did this. The rain has started in Portland, it may not let up until next June.

This is not the final ocean going plan, it will get us by until we spend the money on a hardy diaphragm pump.  At least now we are comfortable leaving the boat alone for a week.

Anyway, our bilge is mostly taken up by our fresh water tank. There is access to the lowest part behind the ballast in the keel. It’s very small. The foot print is a triangle about 4 inches by 6 inches of usable space, and about 3 feet in depth.

The only automatic bilge pumps we could find that would fit were the Attwood Sahara models. We went with the 750 gph, our bilge water is so small the 1100 gph was overkill.

We had to move water about 5-6 feet vertically, or about 13 feet snaking through the boat. We plumbed into the same through hole for the manual bilge pump.

The electrical was easy, hot off the battery with a 5 amp fuse.

The first test, the pump cleared all the water. . . ….then kept cycling on and off. The water in the discharge line flowing back down after the pump shut off was enough to cycle the switch and turn the pump back on.

Great, back to the store for a check valve.

Now it works as advertised, the little bilge looks busy.

One more item off the list.