Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Thursday 29 June 2023

Installing a small electric bilge pump in your dinghy

 Finally! A job started a few years ago finished today. The videos below are a reminder!




Today I fitted the bilge pump. It also got a new tupperware fully sealable box. 

New brass outlet fitting sealed in both this side and inside.
And I have a bung that go in it as well - just in case! 

It won't get all of the water out of the bilge but in the event of a capsize - a frightened man with a bucket, followed by a kayak stirrup pump and then this - should get most of it out 

The battery is a 12v sealed lead acid battery which can sit on its side safely and it will be bungee attached to the top thwart



Just got to work out how to secure it to the base
Postscript update 

I wasn't happy about it sitting on the front thwart. Its a little inaccessible there. So, I brought some wire and wired in and extension piece thus making the overall cable around 1.5m in length. I then ran this cable up the discharge pipe and then aft right up under the port side deck, securing it with cable ties. The switch/battery box can now go under the side deck along the side thwarts and that makes it easy to reach.  

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