About a week ago I came onto the boat to find too much water in the bilge and the bilge pump running continuously.
Upon inspection I found an "all stainless" spiral hose clamp on a 2" seawater line had rusted completely through and failed allowing water to dribble into the boat. It was on an main engine inlet line that is in a wet, salty, area. I have no idea how long it had been there, but I would guess at more than 15 years. I have decided to change all the spiral clamps in seawater lines that are not dusty dry to stainless T-bolt clamps. Perhaps I will dip them in melted lanolin when I install them. I found some at: www.partssystems.com/100-stainless-steel-t-bolt-clamps.html I have also installed a secondary 120 vac sump pump (with alarm) to back up the primary bilge pump if it should fail. In addition I finished rewiring the bilge high-water alarm switch which had been disconnected while doing another project. Furthermore I bought a 120 vac 3/4 hp sump pump at Harbor Freight ($45), and added a 25' flat blue 11/2" discharge line from Lowe's, for portable backup to use when the high bilge alarm goes off. I also have plumbed the main engine seawater suction to suck from the bilge when desired. In addition I have a 3HP, 2 inch, gasoline motor pump with three 9 foot sections of suction pipe and a 1 1/2" fire hose. The folks on the show "Deadliest Catch" run their emergency pumps before leaving port and every 30 days. I did not. I did have it out on deck for testing for the first time in years when a houseboat sank at the marina where I dinghy in to. It sank from DOCK WATER pipe fitting failure-not the first time I have seen this. Be Warned Skippers!!! I tried to use the gasoline pump at the house boat but it would not run. Fuel system parts are on order. Don't do what I did - Test your emergency gear on a Regular Basis. And when you have your life rafts overhauled be present for the process. I have read some horror stories about that too. I consider all such incidents as great good fortune, heaven sent messages, or just plain good luck. I consider them warnings of what could happen "some dark and stormy night" and never ignore them. Norm S/V Bandersnatch Lying Julington Creek 30 07.695N 081 38.484W _______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://www.liveaboardnow.org/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardnow.org/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
