I want a DRY BILGE

Just bringing this post back up. I have a similar problem with the under deck storage hold on the 27. It was designed as a fish /ice hold and does not have a pump or even a low spot for one. I have been using a hand pump and a sponge to keep the water out. I get very little but every once in a while we take a wave or I use the hose to much and water makes it past the hatch which is far from water proof. Its a problem as I use the hold for dry storage and would like to keep it dry.

I will install a pump of some kind to get the water out and hopefully down to the last drop. But to do that i need to build a low spot for the pump to sit. How do I go about it and more to the point not puncture the skin or cause a weak spot? Is removal of the inner skin and any core material followed by relining the created hole with fiberglass enough to keep the hull strength and most important, how do I talk Susan into letting me?
 
I follow your logic but just consider this as an option. How about building up your low area and leaving a "low" spot for a pump?

Lets say you have an area about 5x7 that is low but does not have a low point and you would like to keep your stored items out of the wetness. Lay down something like two layer of drideck or another porous material and store every thing on top of it. Then cut a small section out for the pump to sit and do the work while your dry goods sit safely just above the bit of water shoshing around. Could work if you consider the small amount of water and the ability of a small (non_bilge type) pump to drain a shallow area. Also, sealing up that hatch of yours a bit more would help.
 
I have found that one of those pull-push tube water squirters works quite well at sucking out almost all of the extra bilge water. It also stores easily in cockpit side compartment, doesn't cost much and be used to cool off your friends (with bilge or fresh water). Later, Rick
 
The bottom of the hold is all one level and completely flat. At rest the boat sits flat so the water does not pool at rest. I already have kiwk tiles in the hold and that helps keep things dry but I want it all dry. As of now I don't have a pump at all. The deck of the boat is self draining but I just dont want to have the hold fill up on me if I get in some really bad seas. If you remember I got in some rough seas last summer off of point no point and ended up taking multiple waves over the side and on to the deck. It was over a 6 inches deep on the back deck until the water drained out the 4 large scuppers. Back at the ramp I had to pump 4 inchs of water out of the 6'6" by 8' hold. Not sure how to do the math to convert that to gallons off the top of my head but it was more then I wanted.

If the boat was designed to fill that hull with fish and ice I doubt filling it with water would sink the boat but I dont want to find out either.

So the plan is to install one OMG pump and then a smaller one to get the last of the water out. Then I will see about sealing the hatch better. It can not be completely sealed with out major glass work because of the design now but I should be able to improve the current seals (none).

So does any one have a answer to my question of creating avoid or sump in the hull near the rear bulkhead? Charlie I believe the hold is the out hull just as the floor in a 22 is the outer hull. I do how ever suspect that the hull is glass, 3/4 to 1/2 ply, glass.
 
If the hull is cored at that location, you could cut out a section of the inner glass layer and dig out the core material in a circle about 6 inches across or another shape that works and will fit the base of your pump. Thats how it was done on our 25. Just be sure to seal the core material you expose better than mine was from the factory. I used two part epoxy covered with a layer of 5200 just for kicks and easy wipe-off cleaning. Careful on that inner cut! How would be the best way to make that cut anyway? Dremel with cutting wheel could work......
 
Tom, if the bottom of the hold is the bottom of the boat, you can't put a sump in it without creating a "bump" on the bottom of the boat, outside the hull an :shock: and that would not be cool. The only way to do it is to put a false bottom in the hold, glass it to the sides to make it watertight, thereby creating an area in which you could put a sump with a pump in it. Probably a lot of trouble but the only way to keep everything "dry".

Actually, it wont keep it dry but will allow it to drain.

Another way, as someone did on the fishboxes of a TC255 is to put a "lip" around the whole outside of the hold where the hatch leaks, catch the water and let it drain to a sump above the floor at the back and pump it out. Probably easier than a false floor... JMHO. And that WOULD keep stuff dry as the water would never get to the floor.

Let us know how you fix this problem. Not a lot of 27's out there to ask but must be a problem to those that are there!

Charlie
 
Take some pictures of that hatch including topside, underside, and lip of hatch plus contact point on floor side and I am sure you will get some ideas on materials/methods to seal it up. That would lessen the need for a pump except an O'hell pump if the hatch blows off.
 
It is possible to remove the core, and then reglass leaving a small sump area. However this will not be any deeper than 3/4" or maybe even half an inch after properly re-glassing. If you went this way--you would cut a circle, then bevel the edge at about 45 degrees, relaminate about 1/4" of biaxial cloth around the edge of the core which was exposed and the bottom, spreading this out a bit into the inner layer of the hull (in prep for this I would grind out a gradual slope of 1/8", so there is not a build up around the cut out.

HOWEVER--I would put a false floor in--using foam. I would use a fairly low density foam, maybe 3 to 4" deep, then put your "sump" where ever you want--I would probably make radial grooves to that sump--and then put your dri deck on top of that. Even 2" would work if you don't have the room for 4" foam. With this I would use 3 layers of 6 oz cloth--the reason is that you want to work the cloth smooth into these grooves, and the sump. You may have to do a little cut and patch, as well as some fairing with medium density filler, and cabosil mixed in the epoxy as a finish before painting or putting truck bedliner as a coat. (the latter preferable). You can use a small router and carbide bit, with circle cutter for cutting inner layer--that way there is no chance to cut thru the hull. Works better than Dremel tool. I would not "finish" with 5200-there are much better products for that, unless you need a sealant or adhesive.
 
starcrafttom":2isy6yuv said:
Back at the ramp I had to pump 4 inchs of water out of the 6'6" by 8' hold. Not sure how to do the math to convert that to gallons off the top of my head but it was more then I wanted.
Click to expand...

Tom – these are rough numbers but close enough for your purposes. I don’t know how deep your hold is but for every inch of water in there, there would be 35 gallons of water weighing 275 lbs. So if you have 8 inches of water, you have 280 gallons of water weighing 2200 lbs. 4" would be half of that.


Dave dlt.gif
www.marinautboats.com
 
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