il_papa wrote:
My first time in here so please bear with me.

The bilge of my 24 foot sailboat is constantly filling up with
rainwater - in Denmark where it really can rain! Try as I might, I
can't seem to locate all sources of the rain water.

The bilge is located directly under the front end on the cockpit
(Drabant 24 - for those who know the boat class), with the deepest part
of the bilge being directly up against the rear of the cabin. There is
a retractable cabin draw (about 2 feet/60 cms deep) that slides over
top of the bilge - the bilge is rather shallow - maybe 3 inches/7.5 cms
deep.

I really want to keep the drawer, as this is where the battery is
located, and I would prefer to have short wire lengths from the battery
to the switchboard. Keeping the drawer, however means that I am unable
to install a bilge pumps such as the Rule 500, as there simply isn't
enough vertical freespace.

There appears to be enough room under the drawer to lead a ½" - 1"
pipe to the deepest part of the bilge, but what kind of electric bilge
pump could I use in such a situation, and what could I use on the
intake end of the pipe to reduce the amount of debris coming into the
pump, i.e. a filter of some kind?

Any tips appreciated...


You may not have room for a pump, but you have room for a hose. The
solution is to mount a pump near the through hull you will use to
discharge the bilge water (and run a loop higher than the through hull
so that when your boat is heeled over you aren't bringing seawater
aboard through your pump). You then rig a hose from the bilge pump into
the bottom of your bilge area, and you can put a screen on the hose to
keep from sucking debris into the guts of the pump. The benefits of
this arrangement are two fold. 1) very few immersible pumps will draw
the water down completely. There is normally about an inch left (and
you might not have enough vertical clearance for a ffloat switch to
work properly). The hose will draw the bilge down a bit more than a
submersible pump. 2) You can use a pump of far more serious capacity
if you aren't constricted by the dimensions of the space under your
cabin sole.