Almost sunk my boat

CurrentSea

CurrentSea

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Joined
Sep 23, 2002
RO Number
10265
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Well lots of lessons here.
I obviously need to do more maintenance.
So the tee on hot water heater wiggled loose
City water was connected. By the time I noticed I had a lot of water in bilge. Bilge pump float not working. Kick on switch. Bilge pump hose was dry rotted and cracked since I never use that pump. Mostly I use a small pump I added with auto switch in front of bilge to get rain water but that one was not keeping up. High water alarm works but the speaker must of got wet because it's too low.

Turns out the hot water heater has copper pipe coming out and the funny pipe connector pushes on and grabs with metal teeth but the metal on metal wire down the teeth. Luckily I guy at dock had another connector and we took the teeth out of that one. All fixed and bilge is drained but I hope I am okay with all that water. It was all fresh. Swim platform was in water so probably a good 300 gallons.

Scary stuff. Boats suck
 
A good cleaning? :). All's well that ends well. But yeah need to do an annual what's everything look like check.
 
I do but I never fill bilge to see water come out.
High water alarm was working. Speaker is shot.
The water heater issue not sure I would of found that. I don’t pull on every pipe or fitting.
 
I had a similar issue with a happy ending as well.
I now always shut off the city water every time i leave the boat
 
quote:
Originally posted by abalmuth

I had a similar issue with a happy ending as well.
I now always shut off the city water every time i leave the boat

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Same with our RV. The time I didn't... Walked down to the beach "for a look" and ended up talking with folks about two hours. Walked back to see a waterfall from the rear bumper. Had a bathtub we didn't use but a spigot got bumped.

Now the Valve Always Gets Turned OFF.

Oh, when we leave the house for more than one overnight, valve gets turned off. Out in the yard, right at the Meter.
 
You never know when this kind of thing is going to happen. We had a 25 footer with AC. We trailered it in for service, picked it up later on in the week, launched it, and the AC water strainer "all of a sudden" was loose. Fortunately the high water alarm caught it.
 
I NEVER connect the boat to dock water. Never. Ever.

What kind of bilge pump host did regal install that would be rotted after only 9 years?? If they used the cheap white lighweight ribbed crap, replace it all

I just replaced some deck drain hoses on my boat because they were 48 years old.

And bilge pumps / Switches should be tested monthly.
 
I rarely connect the boat to dock water for this reason, only time I do is when my tank runs low at a transient dock and my fresh water hose is too short to reach from the dock to the bow to refill the tank. I think it happened once the season. I find using and refilling the fresh water tank keeps it fresher, and no risk of flooding the boat with a never ending stream of water from the dock.
I also don’t leave the A/C units on when I leave the boat and close it up for the night because I don’t want to risk a bad hose allowing raw water to fill my boat via the A/C pump when nobody is around. That, and I pay my own electric bill at the dock.
Cabin is hot when I get there sometimes, but really cools off fast.
 
When properly set up, your ACs will shut down if flow to the units is cut off so the risks are really low. Also the air con pump capacity is a fraction of the bilge pumps capacity anyway. Regular inspection of hoses and clamps is important. Hoses dont just fail out of the blue and properly sized they dont fall off barb fittings, heck they can be hard enought to remove... and double clamped... and use the solid band clamps not the perforated ones...

On a small express, i can see the logic, cabin will cool pretty quickly but on larger boats, the interior suffers from the 100 degree temp.
 
I only connect to dockside water when I am away at a transient dock. Did this with every boat. I also inspect every hose annually.

All that said, 2 years ago I was walking down my dock and hearing a high water alarm. Shocked to realize it was coming from my boat! Turned out one of my dripless shaft seals had failed. One bilge pump switch failed and another blew a breaker. Got there in time so nothing really got wet but a number of people walked right by without bringing the alarm to the attention of anyone. I guess it wasn't at the point of listing so they ignored it.

Get everything in working order and shut it off when you are not there.
 
Couple of years ago i redid all the bilge pumps on my boat from the battery bank to the pump. All new wiring, monitoring panel, 3700 rules, high water switches. So far i only have 4 pumps but will eventually have 6. New smooth hose, new solid band clamps. I sleep much better at night. And i test the switches monthly. This was the first thing i did when i started the refit and before the repower. I always find it funny to see people spendign a fortune of cool, top of the line electronics they dotn even need but have nothing to keep them above the waterline

I ve been procrastinating on an external alarm but eventually will get to it... if the alarm is loud enough outside the boat, maybe even with a strobe, people will react.
 
I also never hook up dockside water. I did by a meter that shuts off at a preset amount of dock water but never used it.
 
Spending time in the ER inspecting, pulling on stuff and wiggling stuff is often rewarded.
 
I had one of those push on connectors on a RO system under the sink at home. It too started leaking. Fortunately we were home when the alarm sounded. IMO it failed because of frequently being moved slightly when stuff under the sink was accessed. They may not be good for boats where vibration is normal.
 
I'm surprised your bilge pumps couldn't keep up with the flow of dockside water coming in. That can't be more than 15 GPM is it?
 
quote:
Originally posted by MichaelNJ

I'm surprised your bilge pumps couldn't keep up with the flow of dockside water coming in. That can't be more than 15 GPM is it?

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Have you seen the average bilge pumps mass production builders use? They re smaller than my shower sumps.
 
As I said bilge pump was pumping water back into boat, hose was shot.
so I think the pump will keep up but water has to be able to get out of the boat!!!!
 
How big is the pump? What kind of hose? Did it chaffe or got damaged? Check the others
 
Your average bilge pump is suited for maintenance, not damage control. Never depend on an aquarium pump to save our boat if it starts flooding.

I also recommend getting some plugs (even just basic tapered pine ones) and tying them to below waterline through hull fittings, so they will be exactly where you need them when you need them. Not buried in a drawer, not floating who knows where, but right there right then. Cheap dollar store Nerf type balls make excellent damage control devices, too.
 
quote:
Originally posted by November Charlie

Your average bilge pump is suited for maintenance, not damage control. Never depend on an aquarium pump to save our boat if it starts flooding.

I also recommend getting some plugs (even just basic tapered pine ones) and tying them to below waterline through hull fittings, so they will be exactly where you need them when you need them. Not buried in a drawer, not floating who knows where, but right there right then. Cheap dollar store Nerf type balls make excellent damage control devices, too.

Click to expand...


Come on. Digging thru a drawer in a panic is part of the fun. :)
 
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