My nephew is a Vietnamese fisherman. During the rainy season he has to get up three times a night to go bail out his boat, which is anchored along the river near his hut. This can be very dangerous since the river floods his village so he has to swim through the dark waters, and there are poisonous snakes lurking around. He can’t just sleep on the boat for several reasons. It’s cold and wet, it may get swept out to sea, and he’s afraid of ghosts. A bilge pump is also out of the question both from an expense and noise standpoint. I’m confident that a low-tech solution involving siphons and whatnot could be worked out. How about it? Any ideas? I’m heading over there in two weeks. It’d be fun to have a solution worked out!
Depending on the size of the boat, a really big tarp might be the simplest solution. If size is prohibitive, something involving siphons and whatnot would probably be your best bet. Good luck!
I assume you realize that an unpowered (gravity) siphon would be imposible being that the level in the boat would never be higher than the sea.
We need some more info, Greg. Just how big is this boat? Is it, say, a small thing that could be carried on a trailer? Or is it more along the lines of Quinn’s boat in the movie Jaws? Or is it even bigger?
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Let’s see. It’s about 15 - 20 feet long and made entirely of wood. The front half is open deck, and the rest contains a structure at the bottom of which is the engine room. That’s the place that gets flooded. I assume that the water level gets above the outside surface level, but maybe that’s a bad assumption. You’re right, siphons wouldn’t work if that’s not true.
Small windmill to drive an Archimedian screw?
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Greg:
I bounced this off a friend who used to be a VN fisherman, so please understand that the incredulous tone & grammer boo-boos aren’t mine.
Some small sailboats have a rain hole for this purpose. It goes through the stern at a level above the unloaded waterline. You pull the plug out of the hole as you leave the boat, and it’s high enough that water doesn’t run in, but it’s low enough that you’ll never have more than a few inches of water in the boat in a rain storm. This assumes that the boat has some inherent bouyancy.
AskNott
A 15-20 ft boat is small. Go to any marine supply store and get a bilge pump. They are not noisy and are not expensive in the US.
see http://www.onlinemarine.com/online_superstore/plumbing/plumbing.htm
Buy one and take it to him.
Well the bilge pump would have to be automatic or else it doesn’t do the fisherman any good (the point is not to have to go out there). If it is an automatic pump it needs power. Whether the system has enough battery to operate it is another question. How tough would it be to get something like that through Vietnamese customs ?
Can’t he get together with other fishermen, and take turns doing several boats? One rain storm he has to bail five boats, but four others he gets to sleep.
It is too clear, and so it is hard to see.
The link I attached had electric pumps. Yes, they would be automatic.
You’re right about power. The follow up post said the boat had a motor inside the hull. In the US, inboard motors are typically electric start. I don’t know about over there.
The pumps on the link were 2-5 amp so a regular battery would be enough.