Quest for a dry bilge

[kep5niner]

The bilge in my new to me 2012 302 has more water in it than I’d like. I’d like it bone dry, and I’m working on that. What I did find interesting is the clear 1/2” tubes that bail the cockpit, that are routed into the bilge. I do understand that given enough water, the bilge pump will discharge overboard. It seems in boats I’ve had in the past, these clear lines would be routed overboard via a through-hull fitting. I’ve got half a mind to do that, but just not crazy with the idea of drilling a hole in the side of my boat.

Is there a better or different option to keep that water from ending up in the bilge? Thought I would ask the collective group before I pull out the hole-saw. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks fellas!

[stifflkd]

You must really hate water in the bilge to go thru the effort of installing self bailers. Are you getting that much water in the boat during a rain? Self bailers make alot of sense in center consoles and the such that have an exposed deck were without them all that exposed area would collect water in the bilge; having the potential of running down your battery. What I will typically do is run the boat before plan and get the bow on a upward angle so the bilge water will collect toward the transom and then throw the bilge pump on until it pumps no more water. It gets most of the water out

[kep5niner]

Thanks for the response. Actually, the clear tubing (maybe 6 total) look factory Cobalt, routed and zipped-tied in a very organized fashion, thus my surprise that they just dump into the bilge. While the larger floor drains do bail via through-hull fittings, these clear lines capture the water from places like the battery switch panel and storage lockers.

I guess a picture is worth a thousand words - it will be a few weeks before I can snap a pic from the bilge, but here's a pic to delineate between the drains (circled in blue) which are routed to the through-hull discharge, and one of the drains (in the sill near the red arrow) that just has the clear tubing dumping into the bilge. Hope this helps.

[Big Block Power]

I have a outside wet storage and Cobalt ran the drain to the bilge also. Not sure why they would do that when everything about the stylist is outside. I just plug the drain so it didn't drain so when it rains I manually have to drain it.