Remember Your Saftey Tools

[shine]

Just a quick reminder on safety for everyone. Last Saturday we went for sbft south of the Vineyard and although it was blowing pretty well we were able to bring one sbft to the boat for a release. We fish a 28’ Blackfin with twin 250 outboards. We decided to come back early and do some bass fishing at Quicks due to the wind picking up to 25 plus. As we got into Quicks I noticed that my bow was not plaining correctly and I thought that my trim tabs were not working. I quickly realized that the bilge pump had failed in the stern and we had taken on a significant amount of water on the run in. We quickly pulled the hatches to find them completely full of water and as I pulled the battery hatch, at mid ship I was pleased to find that one empty. The two crew members manually pumped as I bee lined it for shore. The crew got the majority of the water out very quickly due to having two manual pumps and a real desire not to beach the boat. Assessing the situation further we decided that we could make it to the marina safely.
We replaced the bilge ( had a spare) and fix the bilge hatch that had allowed the water to enter the back hatches and we are ready to go again.

Three points: ( I knows there is more)

1-Known when to come in although you know the fish are there.
2-Have at least two manual pumps on board
3-Have a spare bilge pump on board to fix at sea or at the dock.

We also had survival suits and offshore life jackets if needed.

Be Safe

Crew of the Moonshine.

[Tball]

I have Johnson Bildges. These are real nice easy to replace the pump is a cartrige you just twist and pull. Connect 2 wires and your back pumping.
http://www.johnson-pump.com/JPMarine/default.htm

[backman]

My boat has 3 factory 2000 GPH bilge pumps on seperate circuits draining a common bilge.

I have also installed 2 Rule High water alarms; aft and forward bilge areas; wired together to yet another circuit. The floats for the high water alarms are 2" above the bilge floats.

If they ever go off; I reach down and flip the switch of my emergency 4000 GPH pump, on yet another circuit; and while keeping the boat moving assess wat is going on.

All 4 of my throughhull's have those wooden cone safety plugs tied off nearby; I have a massive 4" wide cone I keep in the cabin area to plug a shaft or rudder log should I drop either of those in some catestrophic situation.

I'd supplement your suggestions with also:

* know every throughhull in your boat and how toget to them/plug them in a pinch
* have sufficient emergency equipment and spares on board to be able to control a managable (1-2" leak)
* have a plan for how to contain a catestrophic hole
* don't stop the boat, don't shut off the engines
* periodically while offshore flip the manual bilge switch and look back to make sure nothing is coming out

[RogerStg]

Glad to hear that you got out of it OK. It could have been much worse if you didn't have people that could work the manual pumps (like a couple children)

I'm surpised that you missed the most obvious safety factor - have at least two high volume pumps already installed. On a boat that size, I'd also have a high water alarm.

[Mark Cahill]

In utterly dire circumstances, you can use your engines raw water intake to pump. Just be sure to plug the normal intake...of course running bilge water through an engine is last resort...

[Robocop]

You can reduce the "last resort" factor for running bilge water through the engine if you make up a strainer assembly to attach to the raw water pump with a Y-valve in it so you don't have to plug the intake. You could even "pre-assemble" it and just use the valve to turn on the bilge strainer.