Why

The original bilge pump setup was still in place from 1988. This included a single, non-submersible diaphragm pump for the main bilge (hose running into the bilge), and a small submersible pump for the forward bilge which was also serving as a shower sump (yech!)!

The Job

The plan was to replace the forward bilge shower sump with a self-contained sump box and integral pump. The forward bilge would then get a new, separate pump for the normally dry bow area.

The diaphragm pump was running fine and I checked the hose and strum box for wear. Everything looked fine, so I decided not to mess with something working. What I did do is add a backup in case this one stopped working.

Here is the new backup pump mounted on it's own glassed-in platform.

Here is a picture of the panel. I use some small stick-on lettering for the notations. The LED's have flat stainless washers around them to a) take up more thickness than the panel and b) cover up my sloppy drilling job! I included a switch for the shower sump also since the panel had four positions.

The original configuration for the pumps had no indicators or any switches for any of the pumps. I made up a panel that consisted of switches that can be set to AUTO (bilge pump controlled by float switch), ON (pump on continuously), and OFF (for maintenance). I also included four LED indicators that were lit whenever each of the pumps is on. Also, a nice loud buzzer is included in the panel that goes off when any of the three bilge pumps is running.

Here is a schematic of what is in the switch panel. The positions of thing in the schematic do not necessarily represent the physical location of the same component on the boat. Not shown, but the LED's include a current-limiting resistor. Click the picture for a big, readable one!

One of the problems I had, especially in the bow area, was where to run all of these new "outputs" from the hull. There was one in the bow already for the combination bilge/sump, but now I needed an additional one. I also needed another "output" for the new, emergency backup pump in the main bilge.

I solved my thru-hull problem and actually reduced the number of thru-hulls needed at the same time. You can see this on my "Thru-hull Reduction Project" page.