Bilge pump, deck, bits&pieces
Busy weekend.
I finished painting the bilge. It took two layers of Danboline, with some touch-ups in a few places. While the paint was curing I worked on patterns for fore-deck.
This will be built from 22mm-thick oak plank.
I scribed the exact profile but it is so close to straight line that there is no need to overkill it.
Some primary-school geometry exercises before cutting precious wood.
Oak planks cut and trimmed for fore-deck. I chose to extend the deck by a few centimeters, so that plywood-frame edges are hidden behind the oak.
After bilge paint has cured I filled all flotation tanks with foam panels. It was a good choice to use elastic foam - fitting panels behind battens required a bit of flexing and squeezing, hardly possible with styrofoam.
I leave an air-gap between foam and deck planking. In theory it should keep the deck-wood well ventilated.
Before mounting the deck I drill holes for bilge pump.
Of course - anyone building a boat would like to hide this from view: bilge pump discharge is nothing to brag about.
On such a small boat as Ilur the discharge will be visible. No way around it.
I saw other builders making connection to CB-case or hiding the outlet under side-sits hence discharging on second or third strake. All that looks very nice but in my eyes the purpose and function is compromised by the look.
We want the discharge to be above water-line, at all times. There is hardly space for siphon installation on such a small boat.
If sailing in stiff breeze, with boat heeling heavily, will back-flood the boat through bilge pump then you’ve placed the discharge point too close to waterline.
In a game of compromises one wants to have the whole pipe-line a short as possible. On Ilur the lowest part of the bilge is just behind the CB-case. That would suggest placing the discharge port just below the sheer-strake amidships.
Well, I’ve considered that. Looks good. But it may get under water when sailing in heavy conditions with too much canvas out there. Bilge-pump flooding you with water, in already “exciting” conditions, may not be appreciated.
Shifting the discharge aft, closer to transom, is lifting it much higher above waterline. Should I ship water thorough opening at this place then that would mean that Mother-Ocean is already flooding me through midships.
So: at the cost of slightly longer discharge-line I decided to have it as far aft and as far up as possible. That landed it just after transom knees. And it looks rather well, I would say.
To make it less of an eye-sore I tried to hide the pipe under decking as close to discharge as possible. First attempt was a failure due to too sharp angle of bend for this type of hose: the pipe collapsed.
After I stopped cursing&crying I got another type of pipe, with thinner walls but with reinforcement coiling preventing it from collapsing. That made a trick.
The pump is mounted under deck, close to CB-case.
I’ve left a bit of slack in the hose, so that I can remove deck planks with mounted bilge pump without needing to dive into bilge for detaching all hoses.
After the deck is in place the pump is hidden flush with cabin sole.
While mounting the deck I added more flotation material into the bilge. This is not required by plans but I recall that John Hartman mentioned this as a potential improvement to his Waxwing.
It was interesting weather these recent days: sudden rain showers with short intermezzo of sunny weather. I had to time my cutting or routing jobs with clouds and wind, taking a few brakes for swimming.
Last job for this session: finger-holes for hatches in the sole. I had these brass rings as leftovers after working on Meritaten. They came handy here, adding a bit of “posh” blink-blink instead of ugly knot which was sitting here.