Sunday 19 April 2015

Don't sweat the small stuff - Bilge Pump Installation

Don't sweat the small stuff!  

Well easier said than done when trying to figure out where to drill holes in the bottom of your new boat!  Eventually, I got fed up procrastinating and drilled two holes for drain plugs, one either side of the centre board trunk.  Sense prevailed before I decided against fitting two bilge pumps which would have required a further set of holes in the side of the hull for skin fittings, and so I finished up with one bilge pump which is plumbed to the starboard side of the hull discreetly underneath the sole and inside the seat locker, out of view.


Here you can also see where I installed the ships compass on top of the centreboard trunk cap.  I elected to position it forward, so that other crew might be able to monitor it.


I need to figure out how to fix the pump itself - I don't really have more room for a mounting pad, and I am certainly not going to screw it to the hull, so I may look to find a way to clip the side of the pump to the trunk logs, which are very beefy timbers running on top of the keelson.
Bilge Pump exit through 3/4" bronze skin fitting

Another shot of the Somes Sound, getting ever so close to launch:-




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