I bought Ray Withers hull #309 a little over a year ago but have only had it in the water for 4 months. She is a beauty. She has been a yard orniment for over a year now but I've done some work on her. I'm new to sailing and have been reading the posts on this site and learned a lot. Thank you. I'm also READY to get back in the water.
I removed all the ports and packed (for a lack of a better term) epoxy resin with filler around the port holes between the hull and the liner to stiffen it up. I used foam packing cord from Home Depot to create a dam and maintain a relatively uniform spacing between the hull and liner and mixed the epoxy to a peanut butter consistancy to pack it in. I felt this flexing between the hull and the liner contributed to the old ports leaking. I sealed the new Beckson ports and rebedded most of the deck fittings stantions and teak rails with Dow Corning 795 Silicone. This was recommended by Beckson. I resealed the bow eye with 3M 4200. All this has cut down on rain water from entering the hull.
I noticed the hull is devided by the keel housing and water will collect on the starbord side even though I have a bildge pump under the small step on the port side inside the front cabin. I replaced the bildge pump with a larger capacity and used the same hose connections as the previous pump.  The hose goes from the bildge pump and Ts into the large hose of the manual bildge pump in the port locker.  From what I've read and my own experience with poor efficiency of both my electric and manual bildge pumps, I'm not at all convinced this is a proper connection. I intend to remove this T connection from the manual pump hose.  I've also read about the use of one way valves and this is also not recommended. I'm not crazy about the scupper drains going straight down to  below waterline thru-hull fittings that must have some kind of one way valve. It seems like this design is a possible recipe for disaster so I don't want to connect the electric bildge pump to the scupper plumbing situation that might be the orgin of a catastrphic leak.
So..........I think what I'll do is mount a bildge pump that has a 1/2" hose (800GPH) on each side of the keel, one in the starbord compartment where the holding tanks are located and one under the step on the port side in the cabin and run a 1/2" hose directly to a thru-hull fitting just below the rub rail on each side of the boat. I know the manufaturer made every effort to make a streamlined looking hull but I'm also interested in keeping the inside dry with what I think is a common sence solution. The hole diameter will only be 1/2" and I'll loop the hose as high as possible for an added margin of safety. I know that in the process of heeling I might have some water enter the 1/2" fittigng but I can't imagine it would be that much. I suppose you could even close off the hose with a manual valve if you anticipated heeling over a lot.

I'd like some advise on this. Has anybody out there added bildge pumps with indipendent hose outlets??   Is water coming in the fitting a problem when heeled over?? Thanks
  Jim Rising , Panama City, Florida




 

Thanks Bob, 

How far down the transom from the rub rail did you install the outlet and did you loop the hose to a high point in case of water coming in from a following surf? 

Do you think installing an 800GPH on each side of the keel housing would be of benefit? That way only a 3/4" diameter hose would be required and alow less water to "back flush" hopefully causing less of the cycling on and off you described.

Jim

Here is a picture of my pump in the step.  As you can see I have a piece of wood underneath.  All I can say is I like the location of the pump, just need to keep the water out now:-(

Among the hints I've seen, is to have a modest bilge pump at the lowest spot, to keep the bilge dry in good times.  Then, a much larger one, mounted higher to handle major water intrusion.

TODAY I went to my boat for battery and fuel pump projects.  While in the empty bilge, looking over the battery mounting system, I wanted to review the bilge pump installation as a result of this discussion.

The hose was barely hanging to the thru-hull.  It had been snapped off and was just resting in position.  So, I spent the day removing the old one and installing a new one the same way.

INSTALLATION of this pump may  have been done by the previous owner.  The pump is under the step, with the hose neatly installed on the wall of the bilge area.  It makes a nice loop, pretty high on the wall, then drops almost to the waterline where it exits.  Yes, at the waterline !  I could not leave it in that state, so had to at least replace it. 

Now to decide if I need a shut-off of some kind. 

I have seen other boats with outlets pretty high up on the the hull.

Jim:
I think that you should consider running the hoses to the stern. There is far less chance of water entering the hose if the thru-hull is high enough to avoid following seas. That's the way I have the bilge pump set-up on my other boat and it has never presented an issue. I currently have a manual pump mounted in the cockpit that draws water from the bilge under the cabin step. It originally fed to the same thru-hull in the keel trunk that the cockpit drains ran to. There seemed to be a potential of pumping water into the cockpit so I re-ran it to its own thru-hull in the same area of the keel trunk. I am planning to put an electric pump in on the starboard side of the keel trunk and run that to the stern. I think an 800gph pump should have enough push to get it back to the stern and up to a point near the rub rail. Does anyone see any issues with that? Maybe you could configure your two hoses in a similar way, the port side thru the trunk, the starboard side to the stern. Let us know what you end up doing and how it works.

Hi, I have not been keeping up much lately as "things" have been making life very busy.  On the subject of thru-hulls there is only one standard solution.  Virtually all thru-hulls should have a seacock mounted inside.  This should be maintained in the off position unless you are going to use the device connected to the thru-hull.  This is safety that does not have a price if the boat gets in any position where the thru-hull is going to be under water at all.

I personally prefer bronze because of the strength but there are folks that use the nylon ones.  The nylon is a bit cheaper but I don't pinch too many pennies when it comes to safety.

Jack