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Orion
III
1974 24' SkipJack Flybridge
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After doing some maintenance, I accidentally left an old bait tank drain unplugged. It sits a few inches above the waterline, but water will come through if people or gear is piled near the port stern corner. Well, this happened and a bunch of water came in the boat. No problem I thought, I'll quickly plug the hole and the bilge pump will take care of me. Well, this was the day my bilge pump decided to fail. Out of desperation, I cut the wires going to the bilge pump and jumpered them directly to the battery. I was soaking wet with saltwater and was getting the shit shocked out of me by the normally harmless 12V as I held the wires to the battery. I was also watching the pump burn up as all sorts of water and corrosion byproducts bubbled from the area where the power wires went in. Luckily, the old pump held up just long enough to dewater us and the trip home was uneventful. I vowed to never go out again with a half-ass bilge system so I completely reworked it with dual 2000 GPH systems. Each system has it own battery bank, switch, new wiring, and discharge path. The only thing I wish I would done differently is to go with solid state switches. I've already had problems with the new float switches not wanting to shut off.
 Old System |
 New System |
Temporary holding spot for corrosion issue pictures
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1. Add some updated pictures, these are all way out of date after all the work I've done on the boat
2. Discuss Electronics (dual battery banks, dual VHFs, dual bilge pumps, battery switch with voltage sensitive relay, recording SONAR)
3. Discuss problems with sterndrives (OMC Cobra horror story, Volvo Penta Duoprop corrosion issues)
