"Roger Long" wrote in
:

Most of the time though, the bilge system
will be experiencing very slow accumulations and level changes. Things
happen very differently at this time scale.



"Lionheart", an Amel Sharki ketch, dumps everything into a very deep bilge
in her keel...sinks, shower, seepage, everything except the cockpit
scuppers. When Geoffrey first got this boat, I was concerned the Rule 4000
gph pump down in there with its little Rule float switch was going to seize
if anything went down the drain. I mean, we wash dirty dishes into the
bilge, not just shower soap! You may have suggested why this arrangement
works so good.....

Every time someone washes anything out, there are no "very slow
accumulations" into this deep, but narrow bilge. No sooner than you pull
the plug on the dishwater, it all goes flooding into the keel and cycles
the pump...HARD...to dump it overboard above the waterline. There IS a
Rule checkvalve in the large hose going overboard, about 4' from the pump
outlet, to keep it from backflushing into the pump, especially when we're
heeled over to port, submerging the outlet if we're lucky...(c; Maybe
flushing all that detergent, abrasive coffee grounds, sanitizing booze? and
SoftScrub through there is what keeps it from clogging up! Whenever we
fill the 200 gallon keel watertank from the plughole under the center
cockpit helmsman's footrest, we dump the hose running wide open down into
the 8x6 hatch right above this sump for a while to stir up any solids that
may be down there while we have the chance.

What I find really odd is this chemical/food/booze/soap soup DOESN'T smell
anywhere near as bad as the old Endeavour 35's leaky bilgewater that never
had anything but "very slow accumulations" of rainwater from the mast and
seepage around some through-hull fittings and the packing gland. It stunk
like a dead swamp whenever you lifted the Endeavour's floorboards in there.
The Amel's bilge is damned near refreshing in comparison....

I never clogs....and amazing stuff has made its way down in there.....

Unfortunately, the original bilge pump, a big diaphram, self-priming beast
with big hoses, was worn out when we got it. That thing LOOKED like a
sewage pump!