Keeping water out of inflatable dinghy without a cover or bilge pump?

[sgharford]

Here's one for ya, anybody have a method of keeping the water from accumulating under the floor boards of an inflatable dinghy, without the use of a cover or bilge pump/battery? Mine hangs on a davit off rear swim platform and collects allot of water (probably around 10 gallons) under the floor board before it starts draining out rear bilge (about another 100 lbs hanging there). Typically I let the stern down first and let it drain, but I hate having all that extra weight there between launches. The way my slip is positioned, the stern of my boat takes a beating from the waves and that extra up and down weight/force is begging to shear my swim platform bolts that go into transom. Putting a cover on is too much a PIA, just ain't gonna happen.

I'm wondering if there is some kind of 'super wick' that can be left under bilge extending upward to evaporate the water off – perhaps just a ¾” piece of braided line would do?. Anybody have any ideas? Rules are no batteries and no covers.

 

[Pascal]

Covers are a PIB but do protect them... Properly set up it takes just a couple of minutes (and that s with a. 15' rib with no access on the side facing aft)

Why can't you just rig it so that it is stored with the stern a little lower for water to drain out? I don't know what your set up is, maybe raising the bow by putting a spacer on the existing chock?

Pictures would help

 

[sgharford]

I can't let the stern down any further then it is under normal operation. The dinghy is kind of a structural member with this kind of davit (St Croix) - the davit arms are very floppy if you don't pull everything tight, plus the outboard engine comes closer to water then I would like when cruising. Additionally, even when I do let the dinghy transom down a foot, there is still allot water in the bilge due to high placement of drain (it's right above the floor board).

Below is an older picture, I have since added spreader bars to bring her up higher and ratchet straps to pull tighter into davit arms, but should help clarify. The swim platform is very crowded with the dinghy up, good thing I'm relatively thin.

 

[Pascal]

Well at the dock the only way to make sure it drains is to lower the stern a little, tilting the motor if you have to. Underway, indeed you need it tighter but then water accumulatin shouldn't be a problem

 

[sgharford]

I'm looking for something more creative than that. The bow of the dingy has to be all the way up and the stern almost touching the water to get it to drain proper due to location of drain I described above. As I also originally mentioned, the slip location takes a pretty regular pounding from waves, have the dinghy flopping around due to lower stern is, well, not an option.

Back on track - somebody show me that American Entrepreneurial spirit for a magic fix. Only thing I think could possibly work is a wick of some sort. Maybe some cotton clothes line rope? Am I the only one who has ever been distracted enough at work to even pay something like any attention?

 

[Pascal]

I have come across a pump which attaches in a mooring line and sucks water using the stretching motion. You could attach that to your stern line and direct the suction tube in the tender../

Wonder how reliable it would be...
Just put a damn bilge pump in the thing attached to the transom and run a DC line with a plug!

 

[saltshaker]

What about a portable battery operated bilge pump? Not a regular 12V pump but one of the small ones that run off of a pair of D cell batteries. Haven't seen one in a while but I know someone used to make them.

 

[sgharford]

Now we're cooking, that's pretty cool Pascal, I found what you're talking about, complete with video at http://www.jamestowndistributors.co...dwords!6456&keyword=product_ad_63254&type=pla .

This would probably work for me too as there's a fair amount of wave action. It didn't get very good reviews for durability, and I would have to be careful how I set up as I'm sure the stern line of a 43DC would rip it apart if there wasn't an additional snubber line. But this is in league with what I'm thinking.

2 Things regarding electric bilge pump, the bilge of the inflatable is not very deep, and I would have to cut out a decent size hole in the wood floor boards to place one that goes to rubber floor, especially with a bilge switch attached. In fact, I don't think most switches would trip given relative depth of water. Regarding flipping switch when I'm there (like a hand operated bilge pump), I would like this to be self-bailing for the time I am not there. It's relatively easy to let the stern down to drain once I'm the swim platform.

So I'm thinking I'll drill 3/8" hole in floor board at lowest point when she's hanging and stick some cotton rope down there with a couple of feet laying on the floor board and over seat. I think there may be enough wicking action to get the job done, and it doesn't cost me anything. If anybody else has ideas I'm all ears - this is just a fun side project/experiment at best.

 

[eze2bme]

I wonder if you could roll up a chamois cloth into a "sausage" that would be long enough to get to the lowest part of the "bilge" and hang out the drain hole in the transom lower than the water in the "bilge"???? Might be worth a try?

 

[Seabrooke]

I have a simple and inexpensive solution. Pump it out.

Fit a small bulge pump (with hose), a float switch and a 12v solar panel to a board or in a box with holes around the bottom edge to let the water in

Put it in the RHIB when you have it on the davits or tied up to the big Hatt.

The water level rises, the switch turns the pump on and the water is gone - Job done.

If you use a wanted to get fancy you could put a small 12v battery in the box and have the panel charge that......

Take it out when you are using the tender.

Probably an hour or two's work to make then set and forget.

 

[GJH]

Or do like my Whaler: drill a hole in the bottom of the boat and put a removable drain plug in it.

 

[saltshaker]

I don't think this is a rib so drilling a hole in the bottom would be a problem.

 

[Avenger]

I was thinking a grommet and a small expanding rubber plug, but I'd want somebody else to try it first.

 

[GJH]

Or do like my Whaler: drill a hole in the bottom of the boat and put a removable drain plug in it.

If so, whoops! But along the same line, why not just a lower hole in the transom?