Sharphooks
Well-Known Member
I was on the water at 5 AM this morning and by 5:10 AM I had a nice spring in the boat. I used the wash down hose to bleed the fish and hose blood off the boat and in so doing, I noticed that in between the pump cycles I could hear running water, even with the spigot shut off.
I headed back to the beach to wait for the incoming tide so I could get back to my dock, get the fish put away and trouble-shoot the wash down system.
I dropped the hook and once the mains were shut down I immediately heard the bilge pump cycling but noticed no water was coming out of the through-hull. I opened the lazarette and Holy Mackerel, there was 2 feet of water in the bilge and the level was increasing despite the bilge pump cycling. MY batteries were half-submerged….wtf?
LOng story short—the hose to the wash-down pump had sprung a big leak just behind the hose clamp and was spewing into the bilge behind a bulk-head
I closed the wash down thru-hull valve and shut off the pump. Once back to my dock I got behind the bulkhead, cut the hole out of the hose and re-fastened the clamp. No more leak. BUt now I had to deal with the Rule bilge pump
I removed the Rule from its base, expecting to see gunk in the pump vanes….nope….completely clean. I could see water and bubbles in the exit hose but again, nothing was coming out of the thru-hull…just a dribble.
Long story short—I traced the hose and found a black flanged box that I later found out was a one-way flapper valve that had been installed to keep water from flowing back down the hose when the pump shuts off.
I removed the valve, replaced it with a barb fitting in between the two sections of hose, clamped them down with hose clamps and the pump started working again lickety split
Boy, that would have been fun to deal with in a 30 knot blow out on open water. And my 3,700 GPH Rule back up pump also wouldn’t power up….oxidized fuse….funny how sometimes everything shiats the bed all at once like that
SO glad I got both those items trouble shot today and nice to get a spring so fast and furious like that (on a piece of bait I had used yesterday for a two hour tack and was too lazy to take off the hook)
I headed back to the beach to wait for the incoming tide so I could get back to my dock, get the fish put away and trouble-shoot the wash down system.
I dropped the hook and once the mains were shut down I immediately heard the bilge pump cycling but noticed no water was coming out of the through-hull. I opened the lazarette and Holy Mackerel, there was 2 feet of water in the bilge and the level was increasing despite the bilge pump cycling. MY batteries were half-submerged….wtf?
LOng story short—the hose to the wash-down pump had sprung a big leak just behind the hose clamp and was spewing into the bilge behind a bulk-head
I closed the wash down thru-hull valve and shut off the pump. Once back to my dock I got behind the bulkhead, cut the hole out of the hose and re-fastened the clamp. No more leak. BUt now I had to deal with the Rule bilge pump
I removed the Rule from its base, expecting to see gunk in the pump vanes….nope….completely clean. I could see water and bubbles in the exit hose but again, nothing was coming out of the thru-hull…just a dribble.
Long story short—I traced the hose and found a black flanged box that I later found out was a one-way flapper valve that had been installed to keep water from flowing back down the hose when the pump shuts off.
I removed the valve, replaced it with a barb fitting in between the two sections of hose, clamped them down with hose clamps and the pump started working again lickety split
Boy, that would have been fun to deal with in a 30 knot blow out on open water. And my 3,700 GPH Rule back up pump also wouldn’t power up….oxidized fuse….funny how sometimes everything shiats the bed all at once like that
SO glad I got both those items trouble shot today and nice to get a spring so fast and furious like that (on a piece of bait I had used yesterday for a two hour tack and was too lazy to take off the hook)
, terminals, fuses, and clean baterie poles, check for leaks around through hullls, make sure all valves and seacocks are not seized, and i still have issues sometimes. Ive helped lots of people with electrical at the docks over the years, and its aways the same s… wires are shot and no maintenance till it craps out, owning a boat and keeping it running is a job that needs to be taken seriously
