Added Bilge Dryness

Added Bilge Dryness
Inspired by Don Boyle's sharing, It got me thinking that each of us are probably approaching our Winter boat watch differently this year, so why not share what you've come up with to help you feel a little more boat assured in spite of it being less accessible. I'd encourage any/all members to write up something they've done -it may be something that sets the ball in motion for someone else. If you feel so inclined, please forward it (email, text file, etc; anything that could be copy/pasted to insert into the site) to the webmaster.
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My winterizing of Volti Subito has always been minimal; I like(ed) to do weekly check ins on her, and could easily take care of issues as they appeared. For example, if the temps were forecasted to plummet the next, I'd simply run another light-bulb warmer, or open up the engine compartment to make sure that area stayed warm. Volti's design has a VERY flat bottom with no bilge well to speak of -she could easily have 3 gallons of water in her before the auto bilge would ever trip. I've never liked that, but just pumping it out each week was part of the excuse to head down to the boat; not so easy now. 

I knew I wanted/needed to do something given the less frequent check-ins, but I had a couple criterion; 1) had to be cheap (what can I say), 2) not need to alter/modify _anything_ on the boat, 3) temporary in nature. I subscribe to Practical Sailor and (too) regularly receive an email from them focusing on an old story from a past article. This one fit my need. For about $75 bucks I got a great system that I can leave in should I want to, or in 10 minutes pull it out without there ever being a trace of it. 

The heart of the system is a small 12v pump ($30 on sale) that can run dry for up to 5 minutes, a $12 multi timer (17 on/off settings), about 40' of clear, flexible tubing, several T fittings to create a manifold with, some 90° barb fittings along with some scouring sponges to act as filters for the angled pickup tubes. 

I managed to run all the hose and the electrical feed through existing access holes. The only 'permanent' thing was wooden mounting plate for the 12v pump, but it's hidden down inside the port settee storage area.  The multi timer can program down to 1 min. intervals, so I simply set it to run for 1 min. at a time. I arbitrarily set it to run 3 times per day (created this in the rainy days of November); one or 2 times might be sufficient, but figured why bother. I was concerned about how best to expel the discharge (could/should I tie into the existing bilge hose? Dangers of creating a back syphon situation? etc), and opted instead to just run the discharge hose up through the portside stern lazarrette and take it down to the cockpit scupper. I may rework that part should I decide to leave it installed later, but for now, it's fine, functional, and didn't disturb the integerity of any part of the boat. 

How does it work? I think great. So far the most excess I've been able to sponge out (after a month's absence) has been about half a cup. There's a couple of pictures above showing some of my adaptations, but I just based it off a much more detailed/step-by-step article linked here.