Bilge pump and float switch

[Ed Shankle]

Jon,
Your bilge hose run may be different from others, including mine. The flow back that I get is much more than a couple of sponge fills. It's enough to keep the pump cycling. I've had my house batteries run very low when I couldn't get back to the boat for a week or so after a heavy rain filled the bilge enough to start the pump. I plan to install the vented loop this year. Also, I've had the discharge in the transom underwater when over to starboard doing 7+ knots. At least I'm on the boat when that happens and can check the bilge when floating higher again.
Regards,
Ed

[Ed Shankle]

Oops. Meant to address my post to Noah's comments, not Jon's!

[Analgesic]

This topic took me back to my scariest boating day.  Flat calm water with a deadline to meet a ferry in Provincetown, we were motoring up Buzzards Bay full throttle when by wife went down below to make lunch and screamed "there's water everywhere," actually 1" above the floor boards.  We called the Coast Guard but the Cape Cod Canal Patrol was closer and arrived fairly quickly.  By then I had checked all through hulls with no problem found.  Family members were manning the manual bilge pump and running a pots and bucket brigade in a losing battle.  The bilge pump was on with no evident progress.  Long story made slightly shorter, together we found  that  a season of vibrations shook loose the bilge hose from the aft end of the check valve, past the limber hole under the cabin sole by the galley.  The motoring bow up angle created downhill flow right into the bilge with no check valve to stop it.  The boat was relatively new to me and I didn't know what I didn't know then- no antisiphon loop, single hose clamp on the check valve which was essentially a through hull, no bilge alarm.  Once we identified the problem and reattached the loose hose to the check valve, the bilge pump drained boat drained in minutes, only minor water damage but we were probably not long from sinking.  The experience taught me to focus on the critical systems first and frequently throughout the season.