On another thread there's talk about water in the bilge and water pressure pumps failing. If you have more than a couple of cups of water in the bilge, there's a problem, you need to find out how it's getting in and fix it. The only water that gets in my bilge is from rain, splash (serious waves splashing up and the wind blowing it in), or rinsing off scuba gear and people in the cockpit -- all through the non-watertight lids on my two horizontal hatches (newer models don't have these I think). But I'm only talking about a cup or two of water, it pretty much remains at the depression where the primary bilge pump sits, usually not enough depth to trigger the float switch.
If I have water in there at the end of a trip, I spray fresh water in the area, turn on the pump manually for a few seconds to flush with fresh water until it can't pump anymore, then pump out the rest with a "Big Gulp" manual pump, takes only a few seconds.
I appreciate the discussion on alternative hatch covers, I'll be looking into them to solve the small amount of water that manages to get through mine. They used to 'leak' profusely, I removed one of them and found they were installed with no bedding/caulking -- I sealed any exposed balsa core then added a thick bead of bedding under the flange of each hatch, the majority of the leaks stopped. I notified the factory back in '03. Of course we don't get the amount of rainfall some folks get in the Northern areas. If we did, I'd have replaced those hatches long ago...
If I have water in there at the end of a trip, I spray fresh water in the area, turn on the pump manually for a few seconds to flush with fresh water until it can't pump anymore, then pump out the rest with a "Big Gulp" manual pump, takes only a few seconds.
I appreciate the discussion on alternative hatch covers, I'll be looking into them to solve the small amount of water that manages to get through mine. They used to 'leak' profusely, I removed one of them and found they were installed with no bedding/caulking -- I sealed any exposed balsa core then added a thick bead of bedding under the flange of each hatch, the majority of the leaks stopped. I notified the factory back in '03. Of course we don't get the amount of rainfall some folks get in the Northern areas. If we did, I'd have replaced those hatches long ago...