This happened to me, same boat, same year and the culprit was a bad fresh water pump. A seal inside the pump had gone and it was leaking pretty good when it ran. Water would run into the forward bilge, and then when you get on plane the water will slosh and trigger the alarm. Good news is the pumps are pretty cheap and easy to replace. Newer model pumps are a little louder than the original.
Just to ensure we are talking about the same pump, I am taking forward bilge to be the one under the steps just forward of the washing machine.
You should be able to see any wet areas. From the bow thruster access, with a flashlight you can see pretty far. Under the galley access you can see from gunwale to gunwale. Water in that bilge *shouldn't* be coming from the engine room.
Mine was setup the same. I was thankful that the sinks went overboard, but I'd occasionally get clogs, which I think were caused by spiders nesting in the lines. I keep a small plunger on the boat to clear those clogs.This weekend my wife complained that the kitchen sink was slow to drain. This prompted me to inspect and clean out the sump box. I was suprised to find that all my faucets drain over board. Only the shower and head drains run into the sump box. It was still pretty nasty in the sump box. Will try the noflex digester to see how that works. As for the sink not draining it seems the fender as blocking the discharge overboard so easy fix there
Agreed it does hold a good amount of water before the pump kicks in.
Although you may be right Mark, my other bilge pumps (which are the same type) sit dry most of the time, and I've never experienced an issue where they won't pump when they suddenly encounter water. I'm curious if others have seen that these types of pumps require they stay wet to start immediately.
Thanks Mark. Always good to learn something new.
On my 44DB I didn't normally ride with a dinghy, and when I did it is very light, probably about 100 lbs. That being said, I rarely used the tabs. I'd only use them to correct a slight list caused by uneven weight distribution. I think it is a very different driving experience being on a bridge, but I grew to love it. The 44DB, IMHO has a very good weight distribution due to the engines being so far forward. It gets on plane with ease and even though the boat appears to be a bit top heavy, I never felt unsafe, even in some 8' seas on Lake Huron. You'll want to be cautious of docking in very heavy winds, as the boat has a lot of surface area to catch the wind, and the thrusters will only work to a point. I would always try to back into a heavy wind because going forward it is easy to lose the bow to a gusty wind.
