Take the time...

[buckbuck]

...to look at your bilge pump hose.
Had a conversation with another member last night. He was having performance issues and opened the engine bay to this. He tracked the problem to the bilge pump hose being broken. Pump worked fine but just dumped water back into the bay. Please don't armchair quarterback. This is just a warning to check your hose and/or install a second pump. Once drained engines ran fine.

 

[haknslash]

Did he at least catch some bait fish before draining?

Glad it all worked out. Looks like it was a big leak from somewhere or the boat sat slipped. +1 more reason I need to stop putting off a secondary bilge pump w/ float switch installed in my bilge. Maybe this pic will get me off my ass to do it lol.

 

[Gym]

Lucky he caught it in time.

 

[biglar155]

Glad he was able to save the boat.

This is why I have a bilge alarm.

I agree with checking everything twice (just ask my oft-frustrated wife) but there are several things that could fill your engine compartment with water - and we don't always think of them all. A bilge alarm buys you enough time to take action before you're flooded out.

 

[swatski]

A bilge alarm buys you enough time to take action before you're flooded out.

Well, yes.
If the alarm works. And if you are actually there, lol


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[fireflymedic]

Beginning of each season I check screen and put a hose on and let it auto on and pump it out.

 

[biglar155]

Well, yes.
If the alarm works. And if you are actually there, lol


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Yeah, that does help!

I test mine at the ramp before engine start. I've got the engine compartment open with my nose down in there sniffing for fumes anyway (EVERYONE does this right???). So I just flick the test tab on the back of the float to make sure the buzzer sounds.

 

[swatski]

I've got the engine compartment open with my nose down in there sniffing for fumes anyway (EVERYONE does this right???).

That's the best SOP there is as far as fume hazard mitigation.

Sounds old school, but is actually not. Human olfactory receptors are superior to most commonly used fume sensor systems by a thousand fold. Rare cases of anosmia notwithstanding.

As an aside, even seafood contamination in the aftermath of Deepwater Horizon explosion was tested (for years) by humans, basically smell test, not devices. True.

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