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| Several months ago while we had a guest onboard, we had three failures in a row. Three things going wrong usually result in a boat sinking but this time we escaped with only a bilge full of water. Thank goodness the vacuum cleaner worked. After we had all taken showers I noticed my not so trusty shower sump pump, which I will not disclose the name of but begins with a J and ends with a absco, had once again failed to work. Failure number one: I have since replaced it with a trusty Whale Gulper 320. I figured all that shower water had to go somewhere so I looked in the aft bilge and sure enough there was about twenty-five gallons of water in there. I also noticed the electric bilge pump was running but the water level was not going down. Failure number two: I disabled the bilge pump by removing the fuse and thought this would be a good time to test the manual bilge pump under the pilothouse settee. It didn’t work either. I had my trusty wife pump the handle while I watched the suction end of the hose and I could tell that water was being sucked in but it was being pumped back out with equal force. Failure number three: Well today I undertook to find out why the manual pump didn’t work. The pump is a very large Edson built in New Bedford, MA, my wife’s hometown. On the outlet, there is a one way valve housing and when I disassembled it I could see the valve rubber flopper and its seat were encrusted with dried salt. This was preventing the valve from sealing, thus pumping the water right back into the bilge. I cleaned both surfaces and coated them with a special rubber lubricant I bought in a bearing and seal shop to use for lubricating pump impellers. I believe the problem with the electric bilge pump is a stuck check valve in the hose just downstream of the pump. This check valve is not needed because the hose does not discharge overboard but into the cockpit drain. My next project will be to remove that check valve. As a precaution I may position a rubber flapper over that discharge opening to prevent a flooded cockpit from flooding the bilge as well. Then I’ll be able to do a proper test of both pumps by flooding the bilge with water. It needs a good cleaning anyway. Both electrical and manual bilge pumps should be tested periodically to make sure they are in proper working order. Fortunately our boat was not in danger of sinking but had we been taking on sea water and neither pump worked, I would not have been afforded the precious time needed to remedy the incoming water. The manual pump is the last line of defense and should be maintained in good working condition. As a side note: I questioned Defender recently about a replacement pump head for the Whale Gulper 320 and they do not list one in their catalog but the helpful service representative checked and was able to get me a spare pump head for only $16.95. |
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