dry bilge system

[Dago]

Hi Everyone,
I recently posted a question about my bilge, and I have a follow-up question.

For those of you with a dry bilge system, where do you route the discharge. I'd like to schedule the dry bilge system to run at regular intervals unattended (I bought a Bilge-B-Dry from Neptunian Sky), so I'd like to route the discharge out of the boat. I typically close my thru hull valves, so I don't want to tap into the galley or head sink drain. The shower pan drain is on a manual switch so that doesn't work. That leaves the discharge hose for the regular high capacity bilge pump. If I tap into that drain, should I be concerned about any discharge flowing back to either of the bilge pumps (either the Bilge-B-Dry's flowing back to the Rule pump, or visa versa)?

I could tap into the discharge hose all the way back at the thru hull after a anti-siphon loop, but it's a long run and I'm not sure the Bilge-B-Dry pump would have trouble with that.

I appreciate and tips and suggestions. Thanks, Dago

[Noah]

In my opinion, I would not spend time, money and energy on trying to have a pump set-up to try and achieve a totally dry bilge. You will always get some back flow. My Rule 2000 pump runs to the transom with a high anti-syphon loop and it back flows a bit. I then mop that little bit out with a sponge and bucket. My concern is why and where your water is coming from that you need to run the pump ofter when you are away from the boat. Unless there is a catastrophic failure, the only place water should be coming in our fiberglas boats is rainwater (with a keel-stepped mast) or through the stuffing box (with a traditional packing gland). Otherwise you have "leaking" issues that need fixing.

[Ron Hill]

Dago : I agree with Noah. I have drip Free packing so it's just rainwater down the mast. I take a sponge and take up any rain that might have come down.

Don't think a "Bilge-B-Dry pump is necessary!!

A few thoughts 

[Dago]

In my opinion, I would not spend time, money and energy on trying to have a pump set-up to try and achieve a totally dry bilge. You will always get some back flow. My Rule 2000 pump runs to the transom with a high anti-syphon loop and it back flows a bit. I then mop that little bit out with a sponge and bucket. My concern is why and where your water is coming from that you need to run the pump ofter when you are away from the boa?. Unless there is a catastrophic failure, the only place water should be coming in in our fiberglas boats is rainwater (with a deck stepped mast) or through the stuffing box (with a traditional packing gland). Otherwise you have "leaking" issues that need fixing.

I agree that the bilge should be relatively dry, and I do have a dripless stuffing box. But it does rain here in the Puget Sound quite a bit, and with a 36 year old boat I imagine there are a number of "little" leaks in various places. Maybe I should see how fast the bilge fills with water in a more quantitative way once I've rehabbed the discharge hose before installing a dry bilge system.

Thanks for your thoughts. Dago.

[Dago]

Dago : I agree with Noah. I have drip Free packing so it's just rainwater down the mast. I take a sponge and take up any rain that might have come down.

Don't think a "Bilge-B-Dry pump is necessary!!

A few thoughts 

Thanks Ron. I think I'll do some more investigation.