J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Blitz question

Hello everyone-I bought Blitz a few months ago, and as someone alluded to on an earlier post, it is solid and fast. I have experienced no problems(knock on wood)yet and am about to pull her for the winter down here on NAS Pax, Md. I have what is probably a really dumb question, but here goes. When I turn on the bilge pump, I hear the appropriate sucking sounds, and the bilge quietly empties out, but I can go topsides and look at all the drain fittings and can't see any water coming out...can someone tell me where it exits, or do I have a problem? I think I would see water elswhere if a hose was loose, but the boat is dry.
Second question...what is the winterizing technique everyone uses to put the antifreeze in their 2QM-15's? I will have to do it while the boat is on the hard, as I have to motor into the lift as they pull it.
Thanks, Maj "Gus" Ward, USMC

When you run the pump is there a small amount of water in the bilge? If so there may not be enough liquid to fill the discharge hose enough that it actually would come out the boat. If this is a possiblilty then fill the bilge up a bit with fresh water or anti-freeze (pink kind) and run the pump and see if anything comes out. It will either come out at the transom or out the port side where the sink exits.

As far as the engine it is very simple. Disconnect the the intake hose from the seacock (under stbd 1/4 birth) insert a smaller extention hose (~3ft) into the raw water hose and place the end of the extention hose into a 5 gallon bucket with 3 gallons of Anti-freeze (the purple stuff). Crank the engine and run it until almost all of the anti-freeze is sucked up and it is flowing freely out the exaust. Turn off engine. Done. (-: Just make sure you find an extention hose that fits snugly in the intake hose or it will come out and you will have a mess. I would measure mine, but it is in the boat.

Don't forget to change the oil before you pull her. Top the fuel tank off etc.

David
#397

I know Blitz pretty well. To clarify, are you talking about the electric bilge or manual bildge? Regardless, the bilge should exit at the port side of the stern.

David-I think you are right about the water-it is not quite enough to fill the drain hose each time...I will check however..thanks also for the winterizing advice-should I change the oil if I did less than 14 hours (engine run time) ago?
Once again thanks for taking the time to correspond...

To clarify, it's the electric pump.

Gus, congratulations and welcome to the J/30 Fleet.

I have done something similar as David re: the winterizing. Here is what I do differently.

While the boat is on the hardtop. I have a bucket with fresh water and a small pump going to the engine intake. I run the engine getting the engine temp up so that the thermostat opens. Once I feel that the fresh water coming out is warm I then switch from fresh water to the Half Pink/Half Blue antifreeze solution I mix.

This way I am sure that I get antifreeze into all of the engine.

bernie
#23

Ok, here's a third alternative for winterizing. Most marinas in the Ches_Bay have a "push boat" to manuever boats into the travel-lift. So, I usually do it with Mondial in the water. Of course, I first close the seacock, but then rather than taking the hose off from the seacock, I disconnect the water intake line from the pump inlet. I then use a short length of hose to put it directly down into the jug. What's nice about that is that it's right in front with the engine cover removed. I use pink stuff full strength (-50 degrees) and run the engine until I see pink coming out of the exhaust. My assumption is that the small amount of water between the pump and and the seacock will get antifreeze through osmosis.

Thanks guys-glad to be a J30 owner.If anyone has any more inputs/memories of Blitz feel free to e-mail us at bward@gmpexpress.net. I am looking forward to get Blitz back out to play with the Chesapeake fleet and will be putting together a racing schedule for next season...looking for crew already!

I've wondered about the thermostat, too....

In looking through a 2GM manual, I noticed that there's an engine block coolant drain. It's a valve on the stbd side of the engine with a plastic tube leading down from it. What I do after the boat is on the hard is first drain the water out of the block, then pump 3 gallons of antifreeze through the engine. As I figure, even if the thermostat doesn't open, I should still be safe.

Now I don't know if the 2QM has such a drain.

One last piece of advice, you may already be aware of, is make sure that you empty the water out of the raw water strainer.

Have a good winter...

bernie