Bolo
Contributing Partner
“Sea water in bilge.” How many times has that phrase or something like it been written in these forums but that’s essentially what I have, sea water in my bilge. Not much mind you and it’s not filling up. It’s just there and the bilge was bone dry when I started sailing this morning. On a E32-3 the factory installed five bilge covers. The first, from bow to stern, is the mast/shower bilge, separate from the “main” bilge and it’s almost always wet because rain comes down the mast and into it and there’s nothing to be done about that, trust me. The other four bilge openings were dry. All four are part of the same main bilge. Bilges one, which has the bilge pump in it, and two were wet after I sailed 20 miles to another marina with bilge one having the most water, about 1/4 inch, bilge two with a lot less. The other three bilge opening, going to the stern were dry. When I tasted the water in bilge one it was salty or as salty as water gets on the Chesapeake Bay. My sail today was an easy one with most of it wing on wing or with just the Genoa and a whisker pole. That’s how light the winds were and the seas in the Chesapeake bay were very calm. So no ruff sailing at all but we were heeled a bit coming out of Annapolis when we were close hauled. This is when I think the sea water got in by way of the through hull in the stern.
We did run the motor to get in and out of slips but the dripless shaft seal was dry and no water was present in bilge openings three and four just two and three. So I’m thinking that when heeled over some sea water got in through the bilge hose exit in the stern over hang. Maybe it dips into the water when heeled enough to go below the water??? Then it ran forward to the bilge pump, backwards though the pump and into the main bilge. All the other observations, IMO, say the sea water could have come from no place else. I have plans to install a diaphragm pump, replacing the existing rotary pump and it would be position in the stern. I did the same thing for the shower/mast pump in the first bilge opening to keep water from back filling into the bilge after it stops. Diaphragm pumps can act like one way valve in that way.
Has anyone experienced sea water backfilling though a rotary bilge pump after or during a sail? I guess I could ask put a loop in the line to prevent water getting in through the through hull but that seems like it might cause a problem for the pump.
We did run the motor to get in and out of slips but the dripless shaft seal was dry and no water was present in bilge openings three and four just two and three. So I’m thinking that when heeled over some sea water got in through the bilge hose exit in the stern over hang. Maybe it dips into the water when heeled enough to go below the water??? Then it ran forward to the bilge pump, backwards though the pump and into the main bilge. All the other observations, IMO, say the sea water could have come from no place else. I have plans to install a diaphragm pump, replacing the existing rotary pump and it would be position in the stern. I did the same thing for the shower/mast pump in the first bilge opening to keep water from back filling into the bilge after it stops. Diaphragm pumps can act like one way valve in that way.
Has anyone experienced sea water backfilling though a rotary bilge pump after or during a sail? I guess I could ask put a loop in the line to prevent water getting in through the through hull but that seems like it might cause a problem for the pump.