gadangit
Member III
You would have bilge envy if you knew the depth of our bilge. We had to cut out the sole to gain access for cleaning out the 40+ years of accumulated gunk. It was an awful mess under there, use your imagination. Let me help: the shower did not have a separate sump.
It is cleanish now and the boat smells much better. I put a bilge pump on a stick that I lower down and that is just adequate for now. But it is a very awkward space and perhaps under appreciated by me. I can't put myself in any position that allows me to reach the bottom with my hand. So any dust, water, phone, etc. is hard to remove or quickly wipe up.
The bilge depth is on the trailing edge of our keel. Our keel is enclosed lead. For a variety of reasons, the foam that held the lead blocks in place had been eaten away by many years of exposure to oily, rusty, nasty water. So I gained access, did my best to scrape out the nastiest wet broken down foam and suck out the nasty water. Let it dry with assist by a hair dryer and then poured in two part foam to resecure the lead in place. Everything is glassed back together and mostly good as new.
I've been kicking around what to do, here are some options.
1. Nothing. It is a good deep bilge, quit complaining.
2. Fill with 2 part foam to a reasonable bilge depth and glass in a new bottom that is not so darn deep. Now I can properly install a couple of bilge pumps and wipe up at my leisure.
3. Fill with rocks/concrete/lead shot and then glass in a new bottom.
4. Incorporate an in-hull water tank. I've kicked this around enough, I think I can make this work. But it is the deepest part of the boat, am I asking for trouble?
5. Make provisions for a bladder tank in there. It would take some jiggering, but I think I can make that work. I'd still want to raise up the bottom to something accessible.
What would you do if you were gifted with a good deep bilge?
Chris
It is cleanish now and the boat smells much better. I put a bilge pump on a stick that I lower down and that is just adequate for now. But it is a very awkward space and perhaps under appreciated by me. I can't put myself in any position that allows me to reach the bottom with my hand. So any dust, water, phone, etc. is hard to remove or quickly wipe up.
The bilge depth is on the trailing edge of our keel. Our keel is enclosed lead. For a variety of reasons, the foam that held the lead blocks in place had been eaten away by many years of exposure to oily, rusty, nasty water. So I gained access, did my best to scrape out the nastiest wet broken down foam and suck out the nasty water. Let it dry with assist by a hair dryer and then poured in two part foam to resecure the lead in place. Everything is glassed back together and mostly good as new.
I've been kicking around what to do, here are some options.
1. Nothing. It is a good deep bilge, quit complaining.
2. Fill with 2 part foam to a reasonable bilge depth and glass in a new bottom that is not so darn deep. Now I can properly install a couple of bilge pumps and wipe up at my leisure.
3. Fill with rocks/concrete/lead shot and then glass in a new bottom.
4. Incorporate an in-hull water tank. I've kicked this around enough, I think I can make this work. But it is the deepest part of the boat, am I asking for trouble?
5. Make provisions for a bladder tank in there. It would take some jiggering, but I think I can make that work. I'd still want to raise up the bottom to something accessible.
What would you do if you were gifted with a good deep bilge?
Chris