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