I have lost count of the amount of times that I have walked down the docks at my local yacht club only to see at almost all of the dinghies half full of water. It is not only frustrating to have to pump out the dinghy before you row out to the yacht but if the dinghy is left too long it may sink. All sorts of pumps and scoops have been used over the years and I have found by experimentation that a household dustpan works very well at getting the water out. A dustpan will hold several pints at a scoop and the blade or flat bottom edge of the pan will scrape out nearly all of the water before resorting to a sponge for the last final drops.
This past week we have had almost constant rain up here in New England so there is some anxiety as to whether or not the boat will still have it's gunwales above water the next time I go down to the club. Add an outboard into the mix and things get even more fraught. The weight hanging on the transom added to any weight of water in the boat can have disastrous effects and should the dinghy go down the motor will be drowned and could be lost along with the dinghy.
Enter the Swedish made Drainman, a simple yet clever device which really works. Simple in the extreme it is a concertina type pump restrained between a webbing strap. Connected to the suck side of the pump is a goodly length of clear plastic piping with at the bitter end a stainless steel spring and eye bolt. The weight of the eye bolt keeps the hose in the water and the spring, which also adds additional weight works as a filter to stop the hose sucking up detritus and other gunge from the bottom of the dinghy. The strop is then attached between the dinghy and the dock and movement of the boat compresses and releases the pump sucking the water from the dinghy, ingenious. I only wish I thought of it. Jamestown Distributors have them on sale right not for $70 which is $30 off the regular price.
Simple perhaps, but effective and highly recommended.
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