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Don Street on the Edson Pump
June 11, 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 catalog.▶ 6:40 Practical tips include tacking indoor-outdoor carpeting to the board's underside with copper tacks to prevent sliding on a fiberglass 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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