Secure kayak bilge pump system

Author: josh

Category: Safety & navigation

Created on Friday, 16 December 2011 16:28

Written by Josh

Ask any kayak instructor what the most essential safety items that should be carried in a kayak and that person is guaranteed to inform you of the importance of having some sort of bilge removal system. So it's somewhat disconcerting to know that most kayak fishos don't carry any such thing. What would you do if for some reason your kayak filled with water? And before you get all smug and explain to me that your hull has positive buoyancy and therefor you don't need a means to remove water, I would respond by asking you how you planned to propel the kayak while it's hull is full of water.

When Holger first demonstrated his electrical bilge pump (by swamping his yak and switching it on) I have to admit to being impressed. Always the consummate safety-first-kind-of-guy, he was the first person I knew to install an electric bilge system into his yak. After watching it in action I soon became the second. But then several months later I started becoming wary of it's potential for failure and started to think that perhaps a manual system would be better. So in my distrust of all things electronic (on a kayak) I removed my own electrical bilge system and replaced it with a Seattle Sports bilge pump, which now lives inside the hull of my kayak (it never comes out unless I actually need it). 

However, after having observed what happens in ocean waters when a kayak does start filling with water it became pretty clear to me that simply opening a hatch to start pumping water out might do more harm than good. If the hull is weighed down by water and especially if it's rough choppy water, there's every chances waves of water will wash over the deck and fill the hull (via the open hatch) faster than you can pump it out. Obviously, this would be bad. So of course I sought out a solution, which came to me pretty simply. The first step involved fitting a 1' length of PVC tube into the end of the bilge pump (250mm ID is a perfect fit) and taping it in place to be sure. 

The next step required creating a hole into an appropriate position on the hull in which the tube would fit into neatly. Obviously said hole would need to have a removable waterproof bung. For this I used a flat threaded drain plug with a 40mm cutout, which turned out to be an almost perfect fit for the tubing to pass through. Then I had to find somewhere suitable to install it. 

To work effectively it had to be positioned so that when inserted, the tubing attached to the pump would sit on the base of the hull approximately in the lowest point of the hull, which is typically around the middle of the hull. I considered installing it into the centre 8" hatch at first, but soon decided that it would probably get in the way sooner or later, nor did I want to sacrifice the new XL gear bucket that I have positioned there. The more I looked at it, the more the most obvious installation position became - into one of the side pockets. Here it would not get in the way of anything, provides clear access to the centre of the hull and the pockets themselves drain water suitably as well. It's also ideally positioned at the side of the hull, meaning water pumped out goes straight over the side (not back on deck) and back into the sea. 

Thankfully, the near-rectangular shaped drain plug base was almost a perfect fit, though I did have to dremmel a mm of plastic off each side to get it flush. I screwed it in using small stainless thru-bolts and sealed the deal with clear marine grade silicone. And with that complete, its now going to be a lot safer to remove bilge in high seas when and if that day comes (and it probably will).