Bilge Pumps

Excuse the slightly blurred picture of a damp bilge, but I have been trying to figure out the best way of installing an automatic bilge pump into the Achilles. I want to put a small pump and an automatic float switch as far down into the bilge as possible. Ideally, I’d screw it into the fibreglass, but that’s not a good idea for a number of reasons. Using epoxy to mount the housing means that I’m stuck using the same type of pump and float forever, or else I have to try and unglue the pump mount to replace it. One possibility is to mount an L-shaped aluminium plate on the mini bulkhead (which is plywood) and then attach the pump and float to the aluminium plate.

As it stands, I’m favouring the Occam’s Razor approach which just involves gluing the pump mounts to the cabin sole. Eventually, I’d like to install an Arduino to sense when the pump operates (that’s why I’m using a separate pump and float rather than a combined unit). I might even have it send me a text message when the pump operates.