He was patching a deck leak and started ranting about how silicon just peels off after six months. Swore by polyurethane instead. Anyone else find silicon fails faster on fiberglass vs wood?
Last summer I was anchored near Houma when my bilge pump gave up around 3 in the morning. Rain started pouring and the water was creeping up past the floorboards before I woke up. Had to bail with a cut-up milk jug for two hours until dawn. Anyone else had a pump fail at the worst possible time?
I was anchored near Key Biscayne last Saturday when I heard this awful grinding noise from the bilge. Turned out the water pump had seized up, no warning at all. My partner was ready to call a tow, but I managed to find a spare Jabsco impeller in my tool locker and swapped it out in about 45 minutes. So here's the debate: do you keep a full spare pump onboard, or just carry a rebuild kit and hope for the best? I'm leaning towards buying a whole backup after sweating through that one.
Tbh I thought I had it sorted after watching three YouTube videos and borrowing a torque wrench from a guy at Palm Harbor marina. Three years ago I would have just called a pro, but now I'm out here with a socket set and a leaky seal wondering if I should have just spent the $400.
He said it cost him $60 and 20 minutes of his time compared to the $2,000 deductible and ruined weekend from a surprise failure, and honestly that math is sticking with me, has anyone else switched to that schedule?
Last Tuesday my pump started making this awful grinding noise at 6am and I thought I was going to have to drop $300 on a new one. Turns out a tiny piece of plastic from a broken shampoo bottle had jammed up the strainer basket and it took me all of five minutes to fix after I looked it up online. Has anyone else had random junk clog up their system from stuff that shouldn't even be in the tank?
I was reading the inspection report from the pump-out service last week and noticed a test result that showed 15 ppm lead in the tap at slip 47... has anyone else run into this with older marina plumbing?
I bought this high end electric toilet pump from a marine supply shop in Norfolk last spring. Paid $200 for it because I thought it would be more reliable than the cheap ones. 3 months later it clogged up with the tiniest bit of TP and stopped working entirely. I spent a whole Saturday taking it apart and found the impeller was cracked, probably from the start. The company wouldn't refund it either because I installed it myself. Should have just stuck with the old hand pump for $60 and saved myself the headache. Has anyone else found a decent electric pump that actually lasts more than a season?
Had a slow drip coming from my through hull fitting near the shower sump for months. Kept ignoring it cause I figured I'd need a haul out and a $200 repair. Picked up a tube of Marine-Tex from West Marine on a whim for like 12 bucks. Cleaned the area dry, jammed it in there, let it cure 24 hours. Been bone dry for two weeks now even with the boat rocking in the slip. Has anyone else found a cheap fix that actually held up longer than expected?
I was anchored near Port Townsend last summer and heard a weird sloshing sound. Turns out I'd accidentally kicked the bilge pump switch to "manual" while moving stuff around, and the automatic float switch never kicked in. By the time I figured it out, I had about 4 inches of water in the cabin and had to hand-bail with a bucket. Anyone else label their switches with colored tape or something to avoid this?
Spent 3 years rebuilding my Jabsco pump every 4 months. Neighbor on dock 7 showed me his cheap manual pump that's been running 5 years straight. Why do we all chase the expensive brands when the simple stuff just works?
Bought a name brand marine sanitation hose last spring. Paid $150 for 20 feet. Thought it would last forever. Six months later it's cracking at the fittings. The cheap PVC stuff from the hardware store? Still holding up on my buddy's boat. Don't fall for the hype. Got any brand hacks that actually work?
Honestly, I figured a 50 cent piece of PLA would hold up fine, but that hot motor just turned it into spaghetti and now I'm out $12 for the OEM bracket anyway, anyone else had cheap plastic parts fail on you?
Dude at the marina next slip saw me pulling anodes after a season and asked why I was throwing money away. Turns out I was running them way too long and letting them get half eaten before swapping. He showed me his chart where he checks voltage drop between the zinc and the hull with a cheap multimeter. Now I pull them when the reading hits 0.3 volts difference instead of some arbitrary calendar date. Anybody else been doing this wrong for years or was I the only one?
Had to choose between a $40 Rule pump and a $120 Johnson at West Marine in Annapolis. Went with the cheap one cause money was tight. My bilge filled up during a storm last week. That $40 pump ran for 6 hours straight and never quit. Makes me wonder how much markup we pay for brand names.
I live on a 1986 Catalina 30 in San Diego. Last week I pulled apart the drain pipe under the sink for the fifth time and found a calcified chunk of toothpaste blocking the bend. Has anyone else found random junk in their boat plumbing that made zero sense?
I had a slow drip around a bronze thru-hull fitting on my 1978 Pearson 26 and figured I'd try the $4 epoxy stick instead of hauling out. After three hours of drying time, the water was still seeping through and the putty just crumbled off when I touched it. Learned the hard way that you really need to dry the area completely and probably use Marine-Tex or just pull the boat. Has anyone else had luck with those emergency putties or am I just using them wrong?
I was dead set against composting toilets for the longest time. Thought they'd smell bad and be a huge pain to empty. Then my buddy on the dock in Bellingham let me check his setup after he had it running for 3 months. No smell at all, and he only has to dump the solids once every 2 weeks. I bought a Nature's Head unit two weeks ago and it's already so much easier than pumping out the black tank. Has anyone else made the switch and regretted it?
Fell for the hype on that fancy Johnson pump everyone raves about. Bought it off a guy at the Key West dock who swore it was the best thing for liveaboards. Three months later the impeller shredded and it started leaking salt water into my bilge. That's $400 down the drain plus another $60 for a cheap impeller kit that didn't fit right. Stick with the basic Jabsco model from West Marine for $150, it's ugly but it'll run for years. Anyone else get burned on overpriced boat parts that failed fast?
Bought a "heavy duty" electric pump for my head off some online marine store, installed it Tuesday, and by Friday it was grinding like a coffee maker full of rocks. Anyone else get burned by a marine part that advertised itself as "marine grade" but was clearly just rebranded RV junk?
I rigged up a big tarp to a cleat and a dock post back in March to catch rainwater, mostly for rinsing deck boots and washing dishes... never actually measured before. Checked the bucket tally last weekend and I'm at 312 gallons collected, which blew my mind since my boat tanks only hold 40. How do you guys store your rainwater without it turning into a swamp full of mosquito larvae?
I've been living on my sailboat down in Marathon for about 8 years now. Last summer a retired marine mechanic named Tom was helping me pull my engine and he pointed at my bilge pump setup and just shook his head. Said I had the hose looped too low and it would backflow any time I hit a wave. I'd been doing it that same way since my first boat in the 90s. He showed me how to run it up high near the deck then back down to the thru-hull. Cost me about 12 bucks for new hose clamps and it has never given me trouble since. Anyone else get schooled by an old salt on something they thought they had figured out?
Honestly, I've been chasing this drip for weeks and just assumed it was nothing big. Then yesterday I checked the bilge pump counter and saw it hit 50 gallons pumped in under 8 hours. Found the leak was a cracked hose clamp on the freshwater line near the stern. Replaced it with a $2 stainless clamp from the hardware store and now the pump hasn't kicked on once. Anyone else ever ignore a small leak until the numbers scare them straight?
I slapped a cheap hour meter on my bilge pump wiring just for fun and it rolled past 500 hours of run time in January. Anyone else ever track how much their pump actually works through a wet winter?
I was down in the engine bay of my 1978 Pearson 323 last Saturday, tracing a slow leak from the stuffing box, and found my old Rule 1500 pump completely frozen with rust. Turns out it must have seized during that bad winter I spent in Norfolk back in 2021. I had been relying on a spare manual pump that whole time and never thought to check the electric one. Has anyone else discovered something broken that was dead way longer than you'd expect?