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I always keep the bilge on auto, in fact there is no way to turn off the automatic bilge. It either is on auto, or on constant/auto. Unless it is unplugged from the battery or a fuse has blown/came loose. I have only kept my boat in the water for 4 days continuous so can't say long term how long 2 batteries will hold up. All water that gets below the deck has to fill up a "dead" section in the middle of the boat (2002 Bay 190) before there is enough water to gravitate to the bilge for removal....so you will always have a few gallons of water come out of the transom plugs...The only time I didn't was when I sealed the entire deck, pulled up all grey boards and sealed them down and placed extra ss screws. Takes a case of large caulking gun size Rule elastomeric ($60) but well worth it. Double check all worm clamps for tightness and sealant, double clamp if there is enough room, add sealant around thru hulls. I have a second non auto bilge pump and hosing spliced to battery clamps so I can use my trolling batteries and toss it into the bilge if my Rule Auto bilge clogs or fails or starting batteries die. Paper will clog it for sure and you have to be able to back flush the transom thru hull....hard to do w/o raw water wash down or another pump. I had a bilge pump failure due to paper clog and leaking transom plugs as well as a leaky deck when I first got the boat. I headed out into the gulf, took a few waves over the bow, spent 6 hours trolling, got back in the bay, hit the throttle and the boat would hardly go beyond 8knts (Zuk df 140 4 stroke). Completly "swamped", if it were not "unsinkable", it would be a reef now. But it floated almost normal with motor head clear, battery was tilted and partly submerged in rear box but fxnal. Limped to a dock, back flushed the bilge thru hull and it ran and ran for 30 min. until I got it hauled out and water drained out of the transom plugs for 30 miles....many gallons of water and really, no problem. Do the mods to seal up the boat(let the scuppers handle the deck water) and if you are leaving a boat unattended for long periods of time, have a redundant system or two as back ups like a trickle charger to the starting batteries, two starting batteries, a second "emergency" bilge pump ready to take over if you are not present, something noisey to know something is up down at the boat (RadioShak can help you with a piezo alarm). I have heard of several brand new $100k+ catarmeran boats sinking 50-100 miles offshore due to a failing bilge pump, if one pump goes bad on them, the battery compartments can flood killing electrical and once one pontoon fills with water, in 3 minutes, it is capsizing and heading for Australia. I'd much rather be in a Triumph.....I guess a Whaler would be OK, but too much upkeep and cost. Put the money into the motor and electronics.
Good luck on your decision, Emery
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