Leaky and inaccessible emergency bilge pump hose

[Michigan_Eric]

This is related to "stupid things boat builders do" thread.

Tartan thoughtfully provided a Whaler emergency bilge pump next to the helm. The problem is that the intake hose is about 22 feet long (on a boat that's only 31 ft overall) and winds its way through multiple bulkheads and under the hull liner before emerging in the bilge. The pump works great (after I rebuilt it) but all it does is suck air through a leak in the hose that I can't get to which is near where it goes under the battery box. So when the batteries were out over the winter I thought I could remove the battery box but... guess what... it's glassed in.

Why Tartan, why? Why does the battery box need to be glassed in? It's not a structural element, you could have just used four good stainless steel bolts so we could take it out to, oh, I don't know, repair the emergency bilge pump hose running underneath it.

I also have an electric bilge pump of course that works... most of the time. It's one of those Rule all-in-ones with an internal float switch that inevitably gets stuck either up or down if it happens to suck in as much as a stray hair that might happen to be floating in the bilge. I'm thinking about replacing it with a pump that has an external float switch, with just the float switch in the bilge and the pump back under the quarter berth with all the other Rube Goldberg pumbing. But this would Rube Goldbergify my already too-complicated pumbing and require extra wiring as well.

I'm considering a workaround where I just have the intake hose coiled in the lazaret that I can take out and fling down the companionway into the open bilge to pump it out, but this has a number of potential problems that I likely don't need to enumerate here, besides just being messy and taking up space in my already small lazaret.

Has anyone else found a way to deal with such a problem? Thanks in advance.

[Marathon1150]

I have exactly the same problem. Several hoses, including the intake and discharge hoses for the manual bilge pump, cracked while the boat was sitting in the hot and humid atmosphere of Tahiti during the pandemic when we could not get to it because of travel restrictions. The pump works ok in a test bucket, but not great, so I have bought a replacement. I might be able to replace the hose but it also wends its way through some spots that are totally inaccessible. I am therefore thinking of trying to thread a smaller diameter hose through the existing hose. The resulting capacity of the new, smaller diameter hose will still be greater than zero which is the current capacity.

I look forward to hearing of other suggestions.

[barnab]

We had to replace our black water hose that the builder thoughtfully placed where it would be inaccessible except for the fist and last 50cm. The hose is 6m long....


I made 4 holes in the old and new hose and zip-tied them together. Then duct-tape the joint to be as smooth as possible. 1 hour of pushing and pulling got the new hose in place.

[jamhass]

Here's a thought (not tried out in real life):

An "Emergency Bilge Pump" needs only draw water in an emergency, presumable noticed when water sloshes over the cabin sole.

Given that, one could suggest that the EBP need not draw water from the lowest point in the bilge, but rather at some point below a level of concern (below the floorboards?), such as a bilge area near the pump -- which will also improve the rate of dewatering.

Also, it would be good to have the suction in an area that is easy to access, and thus keep clean in an emergency.

[MicHughV]

This topic gives me the shivers as I can recall near sinking episodes with vivid clarity to this day due to bilge pump hoses..

[Madehn]

Ran into a similar issue with my hoses for forward head. Even after tying a line to the hose and leading it to one of the Barient 60 winches and cranking as hard as I could, I could not remove the old hose Finally said the heck with it , cut them off where I could reach them filled the ends with expanding foam. Got out my hole saw and epoxy and rerouted the entire setup. Good luck.