Blocked bilge pipe

[IAN BRYCE]

I am working on a 27 and it seems I have a blocked bilge feed from the saloon. It seems to be blocked around 5 or 6 feet into the engine area. Does anyone have an idea how I can safely unblock this. I have already tried a snake but to no avail. I am not sure how the system works. Both scuppers in the cockpit are clear

[Bob & Freddy Tuffnell]

On my previous 1976 Mk2 MW27, there was a 15mm plastic tube glass fibred inside the hull, that went from the bottom of the chain locker to the inside of the skeg, under the stern tube , behind the engine, not far from the suction tube for the bilge pump. It was in one length , and was intended only to drain the water that would come from the wet anchor chain.
There was no connection from the deepest part of the bilge under the cabin floor. If any water got in there, or into the recesses where the keel bolts are, that had to be removed with a sponge and bucket ( or a portable bilge pump).
The cockpit floor drains are also a totally separate system.

[IAN BRYCE]

Thanks for the prompt reply. I bought Capella around 18 months ago but unfortunately illness has stopped me from working on her until now.  I am a carpenter joiner with electrical papers so I feel I am equipped enough to make a job of her. My Achilles heel is that I do not know anything about yachts.

There is a leak from a yet unidentified source which culminates wit a pool of water outside the head. The last owner had a system whereby the areas around the keel bolts  had bilge pumps which fed into the area around the head door and was then picked up and pumped up the tube going out under the engine. I cleaned out the bolt areas and put a automatic pump outside the head which kept things under control till I find the leak.

Now the pump seems to push the water up the tube and it comes back down again.  I did seem to work for several weeks and seemed to stop when I cleaned out the scuppers in the cockpit. Hence me putting two and two together and getting five,

I have not really lifted all the panels in the cockpit as yet to see what’s what.

Does this help

Ian

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