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Don Street on the Edson Pump
11 June 2025 · 8 min · 419 views
What this video covers
Don Street argues that the standard two-pump bilge installation — two 10-GPM pumps, one on deck and one below — is grossly inadequate for offshore sailing, and makes the case for the Edson 30-GPM pump as the only acceptable solution.▶ 0:36 He contrasts two incidents: the vessel Outer Limits, which hit an object 350 miles east of Bermuda, exhausted its electrical pump, could not keep pace with the leak using its standard pumps, and was abandoned — yet floated unmanned for 48 hours before sinking — against his own boat Isle Air, which in 1995 was 400 miles west of the Azores, hove-to in a gale with a broken stem bolt leaking at the stem.▶ 1:00 One Edson pump at 30 GPM kept the bilge dry; one crew member pumped 10 minutes out of every 30, moving 600 gallons per hour, for 48 hours until they reached the Azores.▶ 2:24 Street also describes the portable Edson-on-a-board configuration — two long hoses, one into the bilge and one over the side — which he invented during Caribbean deliveries in the 1960s and which Edson subsequently added to its catalogue.▶ 6:40 Practical tips include tacking indoor-outdoor carpeting to the board's underside with copper tacks to prevent sliding on a fibreglass deck, using fir plywood rather than mahogany, and fitting the 2.5-inch intake with a crossed-bolt screen instead of a strainer so debris passes through freely.▶ 5:43
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