Geoff Seddon fitted an electric pump to his Island Expedition - the pictures speak for themselves!

"After participating in a number of courses over the last couple of years and being a natural swimmer as well, more or less as soon as I got my own boat, earlier this year, I decided to go down the electric pump route. The options seemed to be either a battery operated model, which are great because they can be passed to another boat, or a plumbed in one. I decided on the plumbed in type for two main reasons, physical size and the fact that the boat I bought already had a compass light fitted (which earns admiration and jealous looks wherever it goes) So one power supply for both jobs.

After a considerable amount of dithering I put the outlet in the starboard deck, just behind the front bulkhead, with the discharge pipe sweeping down and across to a stowage point on the opposite side just under my left knee. I didn't mount the pump permanently in its operating position because, being somewhat clumsy, I thought I would stand on it too many times- I usually end up being the last person off the beach for a variety of reasons, the main one, in my opinion, being that I am a very caring, sharing person and help everyone else to embark before getting on the water myself. This can result in a quick launch off a quickly disappearing and/or rocky perch with "stuff occurring". It's a lonely job, but someone's got to do it.

Landings too I often find somewhat problematic with my general lack of agility, South Bishop springs to mind as a case in point. Anyway I digress, as usual. The upshot of all this is that I needed a fit leaving maximum cockpit space with the pump operating position immediately in front of the seat. The Expedition seat is the bulkhead and given the boats' propensity to weathercock, with me paddling it at least, I habitually trim stern heavy, so a forward pump position I judged to be a non starter.

The next quandary was where to mount the switch-box, which like the battery-box is waterproof. The first thought was centrally under the deck, but I finally went for the port side just in front of my knee, I like the present hand pump stowage and the cable run is shorter. The switches, which are waterproof toggles, face forward and the fittings are secured with shock-cord onto plastic cuphooks (£0.99 for 24 from BOSS Fishguard) which are glassed in, apart from the switch box which is also held down with shock-cord but in this case threaded through two glassed in plastic tubes (the handles from 2 liter milk containers)

When I bought the boat (from a very nice man in the Wirral)(one of only two who live there) it came with a 12 volt 2 ampere hour battery so the Rule 350 gallons per minute pump should work for about an hour on a full charge, as it takes only about 2 or 3 minutes to empty the boat I judge that to be big enough, but just in case it isn't the battery box in the front hatch will accommodate another one. The compass light which is obviously another drain on this finite resource is the bulb out of a £2.50 illuminated bell push and will run for at least 24 hours on one charge. The next project is solar powered charging.

The pump was bought from the local chandlers, as well as the discharge pipe, non return valve and stainless jubilee clips. The boxes, switches and glands, together with the in line fuse in the battery box, from the electrical shop down the road. Total cost about £50 allowing £15 for the battery. The cables are partially sleeved in garden hose for a bit of protection".

Geoff Seddon - 2005 Go back to Boat Outfitting / Pumps.