Hmmm, The New Rule

With the trip to go scalloping still fresh on our minds, we are back in Miami earning a little money for our next sailing trip and doing some projects on the boat. There is always a list of things to do when you have a boat, it never stops completely, although the list has things that need doing pretty much 'right away', and things that can wait a bit. What these things are, and into which category each item falls, is a bit subjective, but items like bilge pumps always fall into the 'right away' type of project. Which brings me to the subject of Rule brand bilge pumps. We have several, being a catamaran, we have two separate hulls, each having a bilge of course. So each side has an independent pump to clear the bilges of any water. Easy enough to understand this concept, as well as the importance of having a nice dry bilge. That is why we replaced the bilge pumps when we bought Saltrun several years ago. Piece of mind is important, new pumps are good. So imagine our surprise, when, we discovered that within eight months we had to replace them again! WTF? One of the pumps would not automatically turn on, and the other one would not turn off. So, as is typical with most of my boat projects, I had the gratifying joy of repeating the project with yet again, new pumps. So, here we are, around 14 months later and... you guessed it, another dead pump. Now look, this is getting crazy here. This is not like putting up a new role of paper towels, and why are these pumps failing? They have a warranty, so I took them back to West latrine for a swap out. No can do, they said, you gotta send them to Rule, we don't want them. OK, so I go to the Rule website and try to find out how this is done. I guess they are called Rule because the first rule must be to eliminate the possibility that this can be done. Seriously, it is really hard to find this on their site. When you do, they say that the pump has a date code on it, and without the actual purchase receipt (who has that?), the date code must show that the pump is within the three year warranty period. But, they do not tell you how to decipher the code, or where this hieroglyph can be found on the pump. My frustration mounts, as I have now purchased 5 of these crappy things. It turns out that I was told that Rule moved their manufacturing to Mexico recently, and the quality is not what it used to be. Hmmm, what quality, I ask myself. Anyhow, who cares where the plant is, it is the company that lets this engineering marvel be sold knowing it will last about as long as a tomato plant. So, 5 pumps, at $130.00 dollars each, that is $650.00! Now, divide by 30 months that we have been aboard, that's $21.66 a month that I've paid for bilge pumps so far. Nice. The next pump will be a Johnson pump thank you very much, That's my newest Rule here aboard the boat.

So, other than a variety of projects, we have been enjoying Miami, and fresh scallops!