I've been thinking about this for a while, but it so happens that the guts of my
boat (1985 Tashing Baba 40) that now would be an easy time to install a crash
pump. Before I spend $300 having missed something obvious, please poke holes in the idea.
Liberty pumps makes a 110V 1/2 HP sewage
pump with a 2" discharge. It's rated at 8400 GPH w/ 5 ft
head. It pulls 23A starting and 12A running. This model is non-automatic i.e. no float
Liberty Pumps LE51M-2 - 1/2 HP Cast Iron Sewage Pump 2-Inch w/ 25' Cord Non-Automatic
It will fit quite well in the lower pit of the
bilge. It's no where near 5' from the
bilge to the waterline where the outlet would be, but let's use 8400 GPH for figuring.
My
installation thought is this:
Epoxy some rails to the side of the pit and make a hold-down collar that bolts to the rails.
Run a 2" vented loop as high as I can and then back down to a thrihull just above the waterline on the stern.
Install a 30A circuit off the
inverter to an outdoor-rated switch box and outlet in the lazarette.
Run the 25' cord from the pump to the lazarette It's 10' maybe, so I have 15-is feet of cord left.
I know my
inverter will handle the surge (my A/C pulls similarly). I also have a
Honda EU2000i that should be able to run it.
This should cover 2 main scenarios:
1 - I blow a hose / through
hull / whatever, and am taking
water faster than my
electric pump (Rule 3700) can clear it. Answer: flip the switch, start the
engine, and go deal with the leak. Even if I am taking
water on faster that the 8400 + some percentage of 3700 I can remove, it sure buys me a lot of time.
2 - I take a real hit, and even with pumps running, I end up in knee-deep water that has shorted out my
batteries and inverter before I get it stabilized. I pull the
generator out, unplug from the now-dead outlet in the lazarette,
plug into the
generator, and proceed to de-water. As long as I have patched the hole well enough to flow <= 8400 gal, I'm somewhere between holding steady and slowly emptying.
For some of the obvious faults:
I always have between 5 and 10 gallons of gasoline on
deck ( dink tank + 5 gal jerry can)
The generator lives in the lazarette with not much on top of it, and it gets run at least once a week.
Granted if we are pitching and rolling all over, a portable generator is a fail. But, if we are pitching and rolling that hard and taking on more that 8400 gal / hr, the
game is probably up.
Though / obvious fails / comments of any kind appreciated!
Thanks,
Dave.