Ron,
Really glad that you and your boat escaped unharmed. Very sad for those who did lose their boats. Good that no one was killed. Many years ago I read on the liveaboard list a reminder that normal bilge pumps cannot keep up with any considerable hole in a hull. Shortly thereafter I happened to be in a Harbor Freight store and saw a contractors mud pump on clearance. It was a large centrifugal pump directly attached to the shaft of a gasoline engine. I cannot recall the horsepower or the size of the intake (1 ½ or 2). I couldnt resist the purchase. Later I was able to purchase a relatively-long wire-reinforced plastic intake hose from an industrial supply house. For the discharge I was able to purchase a fire hose that happened to be on clearance as well. This inspired me find a fire hose nozzle at a local fire-control store. One occasion when my boat started taking on water it was good to have the pump standing by. On another occasion I did crank up the pump to help save a neighbors boat that almost sank during a hurricane at Sea Gate Marina north of Beaufort, North Carolina. At one point the fellow handling the intake sang out, in jest I hope, shut it off, its sucking up the floorboards! My question to you and the list is, assuming that the pump was fueled but the hoses not yet attached, would it have been possible to use such a pump to suppress the fire on a neighboring boat and save it and hopefully yours or would the fierceness of the fire have made such an attempt too dangerous? Lee Huddleston s/v Truelove
_______________________________________________ Liveaboard mailing list [email protected] To adjust your membership settings over the web http://liveaboardonline.com/mailman/listinfo/liveaboard To subscribe send an email to [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] The archives are at http://www.liveaboardonline.com/pipermail/liveaboard/ To search the archives http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] The Mailman Users Guide can be found here http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman-member/index.html
