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Lead shot in the bilge - E27

Patrick Greer

New Member
Hi everyone,

I recently had my manual bilge pump mysteriously stop pumping. I could tell it was trying to, but just couldn't make the grade. I originally assumed the seals on the pump were bad.

I used a hand bilge pump to empty what water was there, and soon enough, IT stopped working.

Upon further inspection, I discovered the manual bilge pump as sucked up about a pound of loose lead shot.

So, the lead in my lead/cement keel is buckshot!

My questions:
1. Am I alone here? It seems a bit odd to have a bunch of loose lead shot in my bilge. Does anyone know if this is OEM?

2. Any suggestions on what I should do about it? Not knowing, I don't just want to remove it, but my bilge pump will continue to pick it up, and subsequently clog.

I was thinking of creating a mesh/wire "filter," about the size of a tennis ball, and affixing it to the end of the bildge hose. That would screen out the shot, and leave the hose clear.

Any ideas / knowledege / comments would be much appreciated!

Thanks,
Patrick
 

sleather

Sustaining Member
I was thinking of creating a mesh/wire "filter," about the size of a tennis ball, and affixing it to the end of the bildge hose. That would screen out the shot, and leave the hose clear.

That's a pretty good(quite common) solution.;) It would also keep other random "stuff" out of the pump.

I'm pretty sure the shot for the most part is encapsulated in FG and some random ones have found a way out. Do a survey w/ a clean shopvac and see what you get. Vac-ing the bilge occassionally is never a bad idea.
 

Cory B

Sustaining Member
If I remember the specs from our old boat also with an encapsulated keel, Ericson use shot mixed with "webestos" to bring the boats ballast to spec after inserting the big chunk of lead ballast. I think they forgot to mix your shot properly with the webestos, or a previous owner thought they were helping the boats stability.
 
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