CHB bilge pumps

[jlhegland]

Hi guys. This is my second post. I'm proud to report that you guys nailed my first post regarding problems with my tachometers. Your information saved me lots of time and money.

My new problem is with my bilge pumps and this could be serious. I have a CHB 34 tri-cabin. There is a sump in the forward part of the bilge with a standard submersible pump. This pump does not have a float switch and is activated manually by a switch on the 12v, panel which in my mind poses a problem. There is also a fairly sophisticated pump with a belt drive that is activated by a float switch located in the same sump. This pump draws water through a hose from somewhere in the back of the boat, I'm assuming it deals with water from the cutlass bearing. There is a tunnel from the back of the boat up to the sump and I've never had an excessive amount of water in the sump (I drain it manually) but I just don't think this set up is right. Does anyone have and insight/ideas about this? Jeff

 

[Peter B]

That's how my boat is set up. Water trickling in around the shaft, (not much these days with the teflon packing), flows through a sort of 'tunnel' which goes under the isolated under engine part of the bilge, and enters the front bilge sump, where there is an automatic high capacity pump, and another of lower capacity & manually switched, and I also have a manual pump which can drain that main sump as well. Never needed thus far, I might add. I'm interested in this belt driven bilge pump. I've never seen one of those before. However the arrangement in terms of just having pumps drain the front main sump seems kosher for a CHB.

 

[Capt.Bill11]

Fisheries Supply - Marine Supplies Since 1928 Page

 

[DavidM]

Your belt driven bilge pump is fairly low volume, so I wouldn't count on it in an emergency. It is fine for pumping out shaft log leakage.


The one forward may be ok, but it needs a float switch. That is fairly easy to add.

But if the forward one is smaller than 1,000 gph then I would upgrade it, with an internally switched bilge pump and increase the discharge hose diameter as well as the thru hull sized to handle the flow- about 1" hose and thruhull.


An even better solution would be to add a float switch to the forward pump and add a new 1,000+ gph pump someplace with a separate float switch mounted a few inches above the bilge so it will only come on in an emergency.


David

 

[Phil Fill]

To be safe add a separare float switch and a bilge pump alarm. Both are relatively cheap and easy to install. To be save I added a second back up pump with separate float swich with separate hose thru hull.

Our boat has 6 bilge pumps 2 in each bulk head area. Since we retired we been traveling a lot, so added a Boatnanny alarm that had its own separate float switch that monitors the bilge, AC &DC electric, temperature in the bilge and salon, motion and sound. Each day it sends me an tex meassage letting me know the boat is ok, and/or Ana tex message if an alarm goes off. Also I can call it for a status report. 3 thousand miles away we can monitor the status of the boat.

 

[Forkliftt]

Hey Phil Fill. Good to see you back on the board. Been traveling??

Generally I'm trying to save a buck or two. So for my high water alarm- I pulled +- connections from my kick ass bilge pump which I'd say is mounted about 6" higher than my smaller pump. I ran these two wires to the lower helm, hooked the + to the "out" terminal on my horn button. This directly linked the pump positive (+) wire all the way to the existing horn. The - wire was connected to a common ground.
I also added a fuse to the circuit.

Now- if I have the center engine room floor plates lifted out I will reach down and trigger the flipper and listen for the horn . And as a side benefit- my big pump gets spun anytime I'm leaving the slip!

**Disclaimer: the Rule switch is on the short list to be replaced with something more dependable.
Personally I am waterwitch guy.

https://www.waterwitchinc.com/new/SiteElements/Pages/SecondaryPages/Products/BilgeSwitches.html


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's

 

[Phil Fill]

We were in your area last March with the land yatch, and will be in your area again next March. We are looking at areas to spend the winter and travel the lower states.

I forgot to mention the Boatnanny has an horn alarm option.

 

[Forkliftt]

Phil- I'm sending you a PM. Would love to see you guys down here.


1983 Present 42 Sundeck
Twin Lehman 135's