Cal-25 Bilge Pump

I need to change my bilge pump setup and was wondering what setup other C-25 owners had. When my boat was commissioned, a manual bilge pump was mounted under the port cockpit lazarette lid. The input hose went to the small sump behind the lead ballast in the keel. The output hose went to a throughhull fitting in the transom on the port side. Since then I put a 1600 gph electrical pump mounted on a small aluminum plate in the sump. Both pumps have approximately 1" hose. The amount of water retained in the hose when the bilge is empty is sufficient to about half-fill the sump when the pump is turned off. I have seen a suggestion to use a two-stage system with the primary pump being a small pump with as short a length of small diameter hose as possible and a larger, secondary pump mounted higher so that if the water intake exceeds the capacity of the smaller pump, the large pump kicks in. I have thought of many ways to plumb the output of the small pump, but all of them have drawbacks. I thought about Teeing it into one of the cockpit drains, but typically the reason I get water in the bilge is that the drains get plugged with debris and water leaks in around the tiller post. I've thought about running a small diameter hose back to the transom throughhull, but the volume of water in such a hose seems undesirably high. I've thought about putting a new throughhull on the side of the hull, but at the rear of the keel, if it is below the rubrail it will probably get immersed when the boat heels and I don't want to pump bilge water on top of the rub rail. Am I missing something? Any innovative solutions out there? Thanks, Al Waschka 1974 Cal-25 #1693, Sweet Mary 1985 Cal-33 #0026, Short Wave

I haven't tried this, but it may lead to more ideas. If the larger and smaller lines had vented loops, it might work to join them downstream of the loops to share that thru-hull. The combined hose line downstream would have to be large enough to accomodate the flow of both when necessary, I imagine. John Dawson Kefi, Baltimore aw… [at] bellsouth.net wrote: I need to change my bilge pump setup and was wondering what setup other C-25 owners had. When my boat was commissioned, a manual bilge pump was mounted under the port cockpit lazarette lid. The input hose went to the small sump behind the lead ballast in the keel. The output hose went to a throughhull fitting in the transom on the port side. Since then I put a 1600 gph electrical pump mounted on a small aluminum plate in the sump. Both pumps have approximately 1" hose. The amount of water retained in the hose when the bilge is empty is sufficient to about half-fill the sump when the pump is turned off. I have seen a suggestion to use a two-stage system with the primary pump being a small pump with as short a length of small diameter hose as possible and a larger, secondary pump mounted higher so that if the water intake exceeds the capacity of the smaller pump, the large pump kicks in. I have thought of many ways to plumb the output of the small pump, but all of them have drawbacks. I thought about Teeing it into one of the cockpit drains, but typically the reason I get water in the bilge is that the drains get plugged with debris and water leaks in around the tiller post. I've thought about running a small diameter hose back to the transom throughhull, but the volume of water in such a hose seems undesirably high. I've thought about putting a new throughhull on the side of the hull, but at the rear of the keel, if it is below the rubrail it will probably get immersed when the boat heels and I don't want to pump bilge water on top of the rub rail. Am I missing something? Any innovative solutions out there? Thanks, Al Waschka 1974 Cal-25 #1693, Sweet Mary 1985 Cal-33 #0026, Short Wave --------------------------------- Do you Yahoo!? Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

Interesting project The more "loops" and curves in the hose the greater the resistence and the more drag added, limiting pumping ability. The best point for the bilge pump discharge on a 25 is the transom, high enough and close enoug to centerline (near the outboard cutout) to keep the fittings well out of the water when heeled. When racing my 25, we occasionally bury the windows, making a side discharge less reliable. Most of the annapolis fleet either have hand pump bilge pumps or use one of those "gusher" pumps like you would use on a dinghy. I have a check valve on my electric bilge pump, but I've heard that the check valve causes problems with restricting water flow during discharge. I've never used the electric bilge pump. I have a Whale Gusher hand pump that I pull out of the storage locker and use as necessary. To be honest, I never really have water below deck unless we're racing in inclimate weather or something. Typically my bilge stays dry and dusty. If you commonly have water in there, dry it out with a sponge and see if it comes back. If it does, then start to figure out where it's coming in. When I purchased my 25, she would take on about 10 gallons of water per rain storm. Finally, I went below deck and locked myself in during a real storm and marked where each small leak was located (and the big one from the cracked cockpit drain fitting). Now that I did that, the boat is dry below deck unless sailing in really bad weather. Scott Cal 25 #1651 ----- Original Message ----- From: John Dawson To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, August 03, 2006 8:14 PM Subject: Re: [Cal_Boats] Cal-25 Bilge Pump I haven't tried this, but it may lead to more ideas. If the larger and smaller lines had vented loops, it might work to join them downstream of the loops to share that thru-hull. The combined hose line downstream would have to be large enough to accomodate the flow of both when necessary, I imagine. John Dawson Kefi, Baltimore aw… [at] bellsouth.net wrote: I need to change my bilge pump setup and was wondering what setup other C-25 owners had. When my boat was commissioned, a manual bilge pump was mounted under the port cockpit lazarette lid. The input hose went to the small sump behind the lead ballast in the keel. The output hose went to a throughhull fitting in the transom on the port side. Since then I put a 1600 gph electrical pump mounted on a small aluminum plate in the sump. Both pumps have approximately 1" hose. The amount of water retained in the hose when the bilge is empty is sufficient to about half-fill the sump when the pump is turned off. I have seen a suggestion to use a two-stage system with the primary pump being a small pump with as short a length of small diameter hose as possible and a larger, secondary pump mounted higher so that if the water intake exceeds the capacity of the smaller pump, the large pump kicks in. I have thought of many ways to plumb the output of the small pump, but all of them have drawbacks. I thought about Teeing it into one of the cockpit drains, but typically the reason I get water in the bilge is that the drains get plugged with debris and water leaks in around the tiller post. I've thought about running a small diameter hose back to the transom throughhull, but the volume of water in such a hose seems undesirably high. I've thought about putting a new throughhull on the side of the hull, but at the rear of the keel, if it is below the rubrail it will probably get immersed when the boat heels and I don't want to pump bilge water on top of the rub rail. Am I missing something? Any innovative solutions out there? Thanks, Al Waschka 1974 Cal-25 #1693, Sweet Mary 1985 Cal-33 #0026, Short Wave ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Do you Yahoo!? Get on board. You're invited to try the new Yahoo! Mail Beta.

Scott Sauvageot wrote: > > I > > > When I purchased my 25, she would take on about 10 gallons of water > per rain storm. Finally, I went below deck and locked myself in > during a real storm and marked where each small leak was located (and > the big one from the cracked cockpit drain fitting). Now that I did > that, the boat is dry below deck unless sailing in really bad weather. > My Cal 20 took on water until I rebedded the deadlights (portholes/windows). Then I got some leakage again this year--???? Finally I figured out that it was the fresh-water tank on my porta-potti (thank goodness) that leaks when heeled to far and filled too much. Tracing leaks is always frustrating but always worth while. Chris Campbell