bertram31.com

Ain't nothin like seein your boat sitting on the bottom and sayin, I should a taken care of that leak.

That's the damn truth. I came close to that. Some of you may remember these lovely shots of a near sinking of Shambala after both bilge pumps failed:





This was caused by a combination of leaky rudder posts (the fasteners on one had some galvanic corrosion, the other had a packing problem), a previous owner's use of automotive electrical fuse holders, a lot of electrical tape so they were completely hidden, and a lot of rain in a 24 hour period.

While I never thought it would be possible for me to have a near sinking because of the amount of care I give Shambala, I got a serious dose of reality on the "it can't happen to me" false comfort I had. For those of you who don't remember, this happened last December after we had a record storm in Northern CA. We got half the rainfall we get in an entire rainy season in one 24 hour period. The first culprit was a corroded automotive style fuse connector that was used to replace the barrel fuses on the bulkhead. There was so much electrical tape covering the fuse holders, I couldn't even tell they were there from the surface. I don't know how the yahoo who did that ever expected to be able to replace a blown fuse quickly if he had a problem. Worse, both bilge pumps had been rewired to be on the same circuit. One corroded connector took out both bilge pumps because of the lack of foresight of the electrical genius who did that.

When the rain came, the bilge filled and caused Shambala to start to go "bow down". That then caused all the rain water hitting the cockpit to flow forward, compounding the problem.

My culpability in this whole thing was that I knew I had annoying leaking rudder posts, but figured I would wait until I needed bottom paint to haul out and fix them. Bad, bad, bad judgment on my part. That problem meant that there was generally a few inches of water in the bilge at any given time. I'll never let anything that allows water in to go again, period.

Since the near miss, I've had the rudder posts yanked out, cleaned, repacked, rebedded, and new fasteners put in. They're bone dry now.

I also added a third bilge pump. I now have one bilge pump and float switch at the lowest point in Shambala's bilge which is under floor in the v-berth. That bilge pump is wired to the bilge pump switch on the electrical panel. The second bilge pump is under the main cabin floor where the original bilge pump was. That pump is now wired directly to one of the battery banks and also has a float switch. The third pump and float switch is in the original location near the transom.

Bruce, that comment of yours send shivers down my spine and took me right back to when this all happened.

My surveyor made a good point when I was having the pre-purchase survey done on "Phoenix" (33' 1983 FBC).. He said to install some high water alarms powered seperate from the bilge pumps.. One was on the boat but not working (in the aft section just ahead of the transom). I got that one working and installed a second amidships. At first I bought switch and annunciator kits from We$t Marine.. the annunciators were wimpy and could not be heard if there was any background noise or if I was too far away. I went to Radio Shack and for about $15 each bought two electronic alarms.. they will wake the dead. Loud enough that you can hardly stay in the same room with one.. now my neighbors can hear them go off. Cheap protection.. a nice tradeoff.. make enough racket that your neighbors will call you to tell you your boat is bothering them! If that happens, thank them, explain what the noise was all about, and buy them a nice bottle of wine!

An alarm needs to be loud and annoying to people for them to want to do anything about it.

To many times while walking down the dock I've heard muffled buzzers and watched while everybody ignored it.
Sort of what car alarms have become.

One of those 10" red bells works real good mounted under the flybridge.

I almost looked down on Alchemy from above recently. Shore power connection failed (long story) and the batteries were run down from all the rain (two weeks) and she had a lot of water in her.

I think the main problem was that the alarm won't work if you don't have power to make it work.

In my case it wouldn't have helped.

When I got it plugged in it looked like a NYC fire boat with all the bilge pumps kicking on at the same time!!!!

She popped up like a cork, and all was well when the batteries were charged up again!

All problems fixed, and now on to the log damage...

D

My alarm system text messages my cell phone if someone steps on my deck or if I have low voltage and I can check how many times the bilge has run by calling. its a marine guard alarm system about 800 beans but if someone goes on the boat it sets of the alarm, lightes and calls me it resets itself and sends me another text telling me if the violation has stopped. It has a remote to set it and I have had no false alarms.I think it was one of the best investments I have made and good piece of mind.It took me about 3 hours to install myself. The bilge float switch got stuck on once because of a big wake or something and when the voltage dropped after some time it then called me and I went down and figered out what was going on.It saved me and has chased away some people too.

Brewster,

Does the company that manufactures the alarm system you installed have a website. I can't find any system under "marine guard" that has the cell phone features you mentioned.

It sounds like you have a pretty cool system.

Thanks in advance.

John,Its www.marineguard.net Thats the ticket! I would not leave my boat in the water without it working.

Thanks Brewster

Check out the Ultimate Switch products that Depco Pump in Clearwater carry. They have a Hi bilge alarm panel powered by one of those little, square 9volt batterys and it will hurt you ears. There is a test switch for monitoring battery strength. Totally stand alone.
Depco Pump 727-446-1656
NOT cheap, but compared to a sinking....

I've been thinking about a relay wired to the new horns I put on last year. should wake everyone up!!