electric bilge pump on typhoon?

[charlesaf3]

MyTyphoon has no electric bilge pump. Evidently normal? But I'd like to put one in.

Has anyone done so, and if so do they have pictures and suggestions?

[sloopjohnl]

if you go way back in the archives i posted how i installed electric on my '76 Ty and an electric bilge pump. i did not have any pics. i used a small RULE pump and ran the wires up under the cockpit sole to the breaker panel (Sea Dog) i installed on the cabin side just above the front of the quarter birth on the starboard side. i ran a clear discharge hose up to the starboard quarterbirth and out a thruhull in the transom above the water line. i installed a check valve just before the thruhull. electric was provided thru a car battery trickle charged by a small solar panel placed on a cockpit seat. a float switch was connected and mounted in the bilge below the opening in the cabin sole. it was mounted just forward of the metal ring in the top of the keel and the pump was mounted as far back as i could reach from the ring.

[charlesaf3]

The electrical makes sense to me, and is no issue - mine has a breaker panel, though I haven't checked it out for functionality yet.

I am intending to do a 500 rule, the issue is I don't have a hole large enough to get it down - just a 4" in the cabin sole. Did you drill another hole, under the cockpit I imagine?

[sloopjohnl]

i sold my ty this past July when I moved permanently to FL, otherwise i might be more help. but no i did not make a bigger hole so i'm thinking my pump may have been a 350. the original caulk on both my thru hulls were leaking slowly for a few years unbeknowst to me. also the rudder post teak cover bedding gave way causing rain water to make its way to the bilge. the pump was easily able to keep up with any of this leakage so i don't think a 500 is really imperative.
if you are getting water in the bilge and not sure where it is coming from, if your thruhulls for the scuppers have never been rebedded you may want to give them a close inspection. the old bedding tends to swell once the boat has been in the water for a bit, so inspect right after you launch.

[charlesaf3]

I have rainwater in bilge, but my main issue is just thinking boats should have automatic bilge pumps.

I went ahead and drilled 6" hole for an access hatch under the cockpit, with another 4" hole to feed the hose out towards the transom.

3/4" Marelon hole in transom.

Pump is an 800, which comes with check "valve" now interestingly, though I think the hole is high enough that it won't be issue.

I will post more pictures for the future

[Carl Thunberg]

I have to ask. Are you at all concerned that the check valve will hold water in the discharge hose and freeze in the winter time? None of my bilge pumps on various boats ever came with a check valve, but then again, I haven't installed a new one in a long time. Do they all come with check valves now? Personally, I would pull out that check valve with a pair of needle nose pliers, but that's just me. If you're concerned about siphoning back, there's an easy solution to that. Turn the bilge pump off at the panel before getting under way. Just remember to turn it back on when you leave the boat.

[charlesaf3]

I wasn't concerned about frost because i didn't think about it..

That said i still an not worried as I'm in Virginia with plastic hose and i think it's a pretty easy risk to manage, just need to disconnect pump when i pull the boat. But thanks for mentioning it so i can add to checklist.

Backflow is interesting, it's duckbill/keg style not flap