Bilge pump mystery

Zoran Glozinic buys a suspiciously low priced bilge pump with a design flaw... but it proves just the job for his project boat

- Zoran Glozinic

Recently I welcomed a classic motorboat into my small fleet of good old boats. The small wooden cruiser, built over 55 years ago, is in dire need of restoration, though the carvel planked hull is in surprisingly good shape. However, much of the boat's superstructure-including the wheelhouse and main cabin - was cracked and rotten, and the bilges full of rainwater.

My first job was to find a quick way to install at least one automatic bilge pump so I wouldn't need to rush to the boat after each rainfall. I did what I could to temporarily reduce water ingress. However, the boat was far from watertight, especially after the heavy rain storms we've experienced in recent years.

The installation had to be foolproof but not permanent, as I'd be working on the boat and the bilge pumps would also need to be easily removable.

I decided to use two bilge pumps-one automatic and one with manual control.

Each of the pumps I used have a removable base (the basket/strainer) with predrilled holes to secure the pump in a boat bilge.

The main body of the pump, which contains the motor with impeller and electrical gear, is secured to the base with plastic clips. This is a fine solution when you need to separate the pump from the base occasionally, for example to clean the basket, but I doubted it would withstand repeated removal and mounting over the next few months, and possibly years of renovation work.

I needed a solution that would enable me to remove the pumps without separating them from their bases/ strainers. Removal or repositioning should be simple and not prevent installation on the very bottom of the bilges.

After some thinking, I decided to fabricate two stainless steel brackets made from thin sheet metal. I would mount each pump using existing mounting holes on the base and when installed this way, the pump would still sit almost on the bottom of the bilge.