Bilge Pump 2.0
The standard bilge-pump system has stood the test of time, but the times they are a-changin’—and that doesn’t suck.
Bilge pumps have changed little over the past couple decades for one simple reason: they work. Water rises, a float triggers a switch, and the water gets pumped overboard, or at least it should. Despite your boat’s retriever-level loyalty, a 2014 survey from Boat U.S. found that 69 percent of vessels that sink do so at the dock or on a mooring and usually there’s some kind of preventable cause like wear, tear, and/or corrosion. If only your bilge pump could call you for backup when such an emergency is happening. Now it can.
Invented by lifelong boater Nick Velado, the Nautic Alert ($1,000 to $1,914 depending on how many bilge pumps you want the system to manage) learns your boat’s normal bilge activity (from your preexisting pumps) and alerts you on the bridge or via your phone when it recognizes an abnormal increase in pump activation, longer-than-usual pump cycles, or pump failure.
Such warnings can also be sent to your dockmaster who may be in a better position to address a given issue.
The system also monitors battery levels and doubles as a vessel-monitoring system that allows you to track your vessel and receive alerts should it move out of its designated geo-fence. www.nauticalert.com
More on Nautic Alert from Power & Motoryacht’s Senior Electronics Editor Ben Ellison ▶
This article originally appeared in the February 2017 issue of Power & Motoryacht magazine.
