Bilge pumped fail or battery died = Moomba at bottem of the lake. Help us!!

Hey all,

New too the forum. Looking for some much needed advice.

Last June my buddy and i were in Vegas got a call that are boat was sinking.

http://i48.tinypic.com/1zn1ykn.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/2m7vh9c.jpg

Here is the 27 min video of the recovery of the boat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OrmgjJMHtI


So we believe it was a bilge pump failure and combination of the battery dying.

We just put a new transmission in it and we have it running. But now we want to be able to prevent it from ever having this problem again.


So this is where we need help!!

What is the best battery and bilge pump solution? We would like to leave the boat in the water up too two weeks at a time. Without the battery's dieing on us and the pumps stop working.

Thanks in advance

Wow - welcome to the forum and bum deal...

Did you determine why the boat was taking on water in the first place?

Boat looks like an older Boomerang but hard to tell for sure?

So on flat land tonight we filled up the boat with water and it was dripping from the drive shaft. So not enough filler around it... We're assuming that's the reason why it sank.

Good news all the speakers and bazookas still work!!!

Was it moored without a cover during very heavy rain?

It seems like it would take a lifetime for the prop shaft to left enough water in to sink the boat. When you tested it was it a steady stream of water? That doesn't seem right ether.

get a lift.
a bad shaft seal can sink a boat pretty fast. always check the seal before leaving the boat moored. It doesn't start leaking suddenly by itself just sitting there.

doesn't take much water in those boomerangs to push a back corner under the water, and depending where it's moored, one wake/surf boat wave would do it in..

agree with the lift option as that's almost failproof, but if it was mine, I'd ensure it has 2 batteries, one for starting and one for stereo isolated so they don't drain off each other and use 2 bilge pumps, one hard-wired to each battery. redundancy is the key..

That was the word I thought of: redundancy. A second bilge pump, maybe on it's own battery, and that sits a little higher up so it comes on only when the other one is gone. A good cover would help a lot too. Won't keep all the water out but it sure helps if you can push 80-90% of the rain water over the sides.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by ian ashton

Was it moored without a cover during very heavy rain?

It seems like it would take a lifetime for the prop shaft to left enough water in to sink the boat. When you tested it was it a steady stream of water? That doesn't seem right ether.

---

I'm not to for sure if it was raining. but we did have a cover on it. Apparently not good enough. it was over the engine when we pulled it up. We filled it up and it was pretty wet and starting to drip.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by sandm

doesn't take much water in those boomerangs to push a back corner under the water, and depending where it's moored, one wake/surf boat wave would do it in..

agree with the lift option as that's almost failproof, but if it was mine, I'd ensure it has 2 batteries, one for starting and one for stereo isolated so they don't drain off each other and use 2 bilge pumps, one hard-wired to each battery. redundancy is the key..

---

Yeah im assuming it filled up and then the back corner had a wakeboard wave go over it and then the water just starts filling up fast after that. That was what we were thinking. Also getting a switch for battery 1. 2 and both.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kaneboats

That was the word I thought of: redundancy. A second bilge pump, maybe on it's own battery, and that sits a little higher up so it comes on only when the other one is gone. A good cover would help a lot too. Won't keep all the water out but it sure helps if you can push 80-90% of the rain water over the sides.

---

So in the boomerangs there is only 1 bilge hole. were going to drill a 2nd one and put a second bilge in there.
It's hard finding a cover that fits because there is an after market tower on the boat.



im at work so im typing this quickly. Thanks guys for the suggestions keep them coming. i'll post some more photos that I took last night when we were working on it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by darren.alexander

So in the boomerangs there is only 1 bilge hole. were going to drill a 2nd one and put a second bilge in there.

---

If you mean a thru-hull on the discharge end, you don't need another hole for the second pump. You could get two check valves and a "Y" fitting. Only one pump should run at a time anyway so as long as you prevent the bilge water from going back down the other hose it will pump out.

Lift would be best.

But it not possible then to be redundant again ;-), at least 2 pumps, each has it's own battery. Is there power to the dock? Could you install some onboard chargers and hook up to 120? If not I'd throw on a couple solar chargers too just to get as much unattended time out of the batteries as possible. Could you hire a neighbor kid to check on the boat at least weekly or more often? Can you secure a small generator nearby to power some onboard chargers and have someone run it once a week? All depends on what is available at the dock and how much $$$ you want to spend.