Re: [Paddlewise] Electric or Foot Pumps or SeaSocks?

>From: VajraT_at_aol.com
>
>Does anyone have a set-up which they've used awhile and:
>1) Easily available for purchase
>2) Can be installed by a non-engineer
>3) Won't take up a large amount of space
>4) Reasonable price (under $50)
>
>And what about the deck port, with a cover?  Is there a kit which has all 
>the
>needed components, designed to work together?
>
>Does anyone have experience with both electric and foot-operated pumps?  I
>have the impression that electric would be the way to go:  less expensive,
>lighter, more compact, does not require a complicated, beefy attachment to
>the hull.  Allows full use of the feet, for bracing or operating rudder
>pedals.  Probably slower to empty the cockpit, but since even a 
>fully-swamped
>kayak can be braced upright and paddled forward, this seems acceptable.  I

Hi Vajra,
Last year I installed one of those 3D cell self-contained "Aqua-Buddy" 
portable pool pumps. As far as I know it's the only full meal deal that will 
cost you less than fifty bucks by the time it's fully installed. (You can 
buy proper boat bilge pumps for less than $50.00 but you must by marine 
batteries for them seperately, plus they're heavy and bulky). Regarding 
water back flowing through the hose - you can buy a one-way flapper valve 
that splices into the plastic hose.
Having said all that, I was not very impressed will the rate at which it 
empties the boat.

>think I'd rather keep my feet on the pegs and get my boat moving toward
>safety, even if it took, say, 20 minutes to empty the cockpit vs. 5 minutes
>with a foot pump.
However, during that 20 minutes, a large quantity of water will be sloshing 
violently about in your cockpit (you didn't capsize in calm conditions, did 
you?-:) This free surface effect is tremendously destabilizing. Try flooding 
just an inch or two into your cockpit sometime, then paddling/brazing in say 
one or two foot chop. I did, and it scared me to imagine doing so far from 
shore in big water. For that reason I bought a sea sock, which I tried for 
the first time this weekend. I'm provisionally very impressed. I have not 
yet wet-exited with it - but after many, many eskimoe rolls, only a few 
ounces in the cockpit. My understanding is that as you right a kayak with a 
sea sock, much of the water drains out (that certainly was the case with my 
former boat - a plastic Puffin, with a moulded in sea sock). And even with a 
flooded sea sock the water has far less room to move for and aft than in a 
bare cockpit.
The sea sock costs about twice the price of a pump, but seems low tech, with 
fewer things to go wrong.
For your consideration.

Happy paddling,
Philip


N49°16' W123°08'


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