How embarrassing! Let me count the ways how WRONG this whole bilge pump set-up is:
- Inferior quality hose
- A single, rusted hose clamp
- Poorly spliced wires dangling in the bilge water
- The float switch (in the foreground) held on with just one screw
- The hose discharge barely above the waterline allowed seawater to backfill into the bilge
- Filthy,
- FILTHY bilge!
We certainly have our work cut out for us! After the very clean & dry bilges on our PDQ, seeing these was quite the shock. Cleaning up & fixing up was first on our very, very long list.
This display we installed warns us if there is ever more than 3″ of water in any of our 6 bilges. The photo on the right shows a water sensor 4′ down into the bilge beneath our generator.After our scary engine bilges, we went to the other extreme by installing a high-water alarm system for all 6 of our bilges. Our 6 isolated bilges (plus 4 waterproof “crash” compartments) provide great safety in the event of water intrusion (aka sinking). On the other hand, running wires thru-out our boat for 6 bilge switches was quite the challenge taking nearly 2 weeks. While we were torturing ourselves, we also ran wiring for high temp engine alarms, an additional generator temp sensor & for improved lighting in the galley.
After several frustrating days, Amazon to the rescue with a remote camera hooked up to my iPad.
Safety in many forms – we installed a fire suppression system in both engine compartments (the tank is installed at an angle as required for this model). Even though diesel engine fires are extremely rare, our insurance company required us to install them.
Interrupting our projects was week-long Connecticut River flooding from the heavy rains in Massachusetts & Vermont. THOUSANDS of trees & pieces of debris floated by and MILLIONS of gallons of raw sewage (thanks Hartford & Springfield 😦
How I miss having a workshop! It took pretty crude methods to turn this 5″ shelf into a 2″ shelf to accommodate our new convention/microwave over our stove in the galley.
Our quickest project was installing a new chainwheel (the shiny thing to the left) on our anchor windlass. While the prior owner had recently replaced one of the two anchor chains with 200′ of new galvanized chain, it wouldn’t go even a foot without jamming as it was incompatible. “Only” $650 (for that shiny thing) & only an hour of labor was record breaking!
A “famous” Smith Island cake (shipped in from tiny Smith Island in the Chesapeake – population 200), along with donuts from Neil’s Donuts in Middletown, CT kept our spirits up when wiring went wrong.
Now officially “Twin Sisters”We are finally past the half-way point of our projects & can finally see the light at the other end. We may actually take our boat out someday soon!
Cruising along the East Coast and Bahamas 
Impressive Russ and Lori! Some of that looks painful! Seems all very sensible!
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Thank you Martin! Some of our – well many of our projects needed the flexibility of a contortionist , the skill of McGyver and the patience of a saint! We definitely had trouble emulating a contortionist!
Russ keeps finding a new project under every stone!
Some day we’ll be “company ready”! Hoping it’s THIS summer!
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Wow. You have made some impressive upgrades in the few weeks since we stopped by. Nice work!
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Thanks! We’re finding more every day! 😳. More working hours since rental car returned 10 days ago.
Determined to be done soon!!
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All good calls that needed to be handled. Good luck with the rest of your projects. I need to replace my float switch also. I had small debate about with a friend about wiring a bilge pump on a small boat. I think the float switch needs to be wired directly to a battery with an inline fuse along with to a manual switch at the helm. This is so the pump will always work if the float switch turns it on even if the battery switch is turned off for all battery. This came up from a friend mentioning the boat storage dry stack guys turned off his battery switch and a big storm almost caused sinking damage as his bilge didn’t work. JMO, I said it wasn’t wired correctly and his response was it should be as it was a factory install. It’s not how mine works anyway.
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I agree with you – a direct battery connection (with a fuse) is the way to go.
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Bilge and engine overheat alarms are the best projects! As you know, exhaust collar alarms were on our list, but not done in time. Doh!
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Oh yes such fun! Everything is more complicated and lord knows what some prior owner was even thinking at times! Hope your summer is going well and our paths cross again this winter.
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Ahhh yes, the pleasures of a new (to you) boat ehh? Looks like you’re making excellent progress.
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We are! And very happy to have this great T head spot for the season.
Wondering what your winter plans are😊
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