Beginners Guide To Boating Stuff!

And one more link regarding epoxy formulation / characteristics
http://www.oneoceankayaks.com/Epoxtest.htm
http://byyb.org/forum/index.php?topic=586.0;wap2

Also here is an interesting FAQ about epoxy (well US composite epoxy) but a good read never the less .
http://www.uscomposites.com/faq_epoxy.html#10
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Thanks for the link. The part that caught my attention was his recommending the pump be wired directly to the batt. with no fuse protection. Is this sound advice?

 

From yacht survey

"I do not agree with the ABYC standard that bilge pumps must have circuit protection. Far too often, the circuit breaker or fuse is the cause of a boat sinking. If you want to eliminate circuit protection, try to keep the wire run as short as possible. While its not good practice to wire anything direct to the battery, I'd say the lone exception would be bilge pumps. If there's no other practical way, go ahead and do it. This applies to submersible pumps only. These pumps have no history of burning up and starting fires."

I am not expert in electrics (hopefully one of our forum experts will help in that)

I think what he means is in an emergency if the fuse blow or needs replacement you will simply not have enough time to do that. He also specified submersible pumps only and keeping the wire short, all these mean he is aware of the risk of not having a fuse and is giving advice to minimize the risk yet he still thinks its better to connect directly.

 

I understood what he meant. I was curious as to how many here wire theirs this way.

 

You are better off starting a thread in electronics to ask about this question, regular guru's dont hang around here much.

 

I think you have shared some valuable information here.

 

This is adventure, poetry, pure human art!

I am a newbie who has just been pointed to this thread (thanks, Vulkyn!). The word "exotic" made me click, and it took quite some time to understand what this was about. My jaw dropped when I figured out what the project is.
Amazing! I am speechless, and warmly happy for slowly becoming part of the seafarer humans!
Kol Akavod!

 

Pleasure Aharon welcome to BD.net

Should you run into links that are suitable for newbie's like us please post it here ...

 

Welcome, Aharon. Enjoy the forum.

 

Skipping the fuse is probably not good. If I wanted the maximum reliability solution, I would:

1. Solder a bus fuse (at 80% to 85% of the wire current carrying capacity) in the main line to the bilge pump.

2. I would also run a second wire from the pump through a switch and normal fuse to the battery. The switch is is kept off, unless needed.

3. If the pump has pig tails (short leads provided by the maker) these connections would also be soldered.

4. Each soldered connection would be painted with a "liquid tape" product. After it is dry, wrap it with quality electrical tape.

Corrosion at a clip in fuse can be a real concern. Some "marine grade" in-line fuse holders may work OK a keeping everything 100% dry, but only if installed properly and kept sealed up any time things could get moist. A wire to wire joint with a crimped connector & painted with a "liquid tape" product is not bad. However, if the joint is really important, the average guy is probably better off with a soldered joint.

If you skip the fuse, a short can allow the entire wire run to become red hot and either start a fire or damage everything it touches. Although a submerged pump is low risk of being an actual ignition source, it can still have a wire to wire short and then causes the power leads to go up in smoke. I have generated enough of this kind of smoke to have learned how much energy is available in a battery.

 

I have run through this thread searching for Eric Sponberg's course on boat design, but haven't find it mentioned yet:
http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/center-flotation-calculation-implications-30857.html

 

Thx magwas, i was solely concerned with the building aspect as such i did not add anything regarding design, so please feel free to add anything you find interesting in that area.

 

Eric put his stuff into several documents with links here -

http://www.boatdesign.net/forums/bo...ulation-implications-30857-18.html#post353422

 

I have not seen a posting from Vulkyn in quite awhile and do not know how he and his family came through the termoil in Egypt. Anybody have any news? Thanks.

 

I was worried too so I sent a PM to Vulkyn last week; haven't heard back from him yet but it's only been 5 days.