Are sea pumps and sea strainers the same?
 

We do alot of beaching and yesterday I got some sand and ate up the rubber impeller. Doesn't happen alot but occassionally. Especially bad at the beginning of the season when the sandbars have moved and I am learning how the water has changed the beaches. I have been curious if a sea pump and a seat strainer are items that work in conjunction, the same thing, or 2 totally different ways of handling the water. I would really appreciate some clarification.

Sea strainers do exactly that and strain things like seaweed and debris out of the water before it reaches the sea water pump with the impeller. They look like coffee cans mounted in the bottom of the bilge with strainers in them.

That said, they are not that much good for sand. There is one manufacturer that markets a "sand strainer". It's supposedly does help in that arena. Do a search on here and you should find it.

If you do beach, the best way is to coast in, kill the motors, and trim it up as you approach the beach. Set an anchor or sand-spike in the sand to secure the boat vs. making sure you are far enough up on the sand to 'stay put'.

When it comes to getting off the sand, push the boat off by hand, and then fire the motors when the drives are in plenty of water.

You can't beach these things like a PWC or jet-boat.

Drives with low water pickups seem to be the worst for sucking up sand.

Mine has that... Can they be changed?

You have low water pickups for a reason. If they were higher you would lose water pressure.
Sidwayz summed it up for you. You have a high performance boat.

Really? Glad you chimed in..... I was also thinking of this. Installing the high water pickups that is ... any other info?

I wish that was option for me.
Our river has a 4-5mph current, so there is no coasting in or pushing off by hand. Fortunately I know the river pretty well and my boat is long enough that the stern is in deep enough water most of the time. I plugged an engine once a couple years ago and 16 miles home on one engine in the dark was no fun at all. It took me another 6 hrs to get all the sand cleared out.

We back in when going to a beach/island. We drop an anchor off the front when backing in and then put another anchor off the back or a spike to hold the boat in place. This also allows us to pull the boat far enough off shore, using the front anchor, prior to starting the motors in shallow water. The back of the boat is usually in waist deep water (maybe a little deeper) with plenty of room under the hull and drives. Has always worked well for us.

I couldn't imagine sliding my hull up onto a beach through the sand. Gives me chills just thinking about it.

We also have a stronger current on the ohio here so I cant coast in. The gel coat is still thick on the bottom where I beach her. I usually have no problems throughout the year but like I said yesterday was our second day out and I am learning where the river has reshaped the island and shifted the sandbars over the high water winters. I do understand that its a performance boat but was just curious if there was a better option. I appreciate all the help. Like I always say there is no stupid question if you want to be knowledgeable.

I for one think it wrong to beach a performance boat, but if you insist there is way to prevent the sand issue. Run large ball valve tee fittings on your water pickups with a hose running out the side of the boat with a thru hull fitting just below the water line at idle. Off plane switch the manual valves to pull water off the side of the boat. DO NOT forget to switch back before planning off.

That's a pretty smart idea. I like it. Has anyone ever done such?

I agree beaching is not my favorite option, but when that is all you have locally there is not many options. I can be off work and on the river in about 30-45 minutes (counting going home and getting my boat and going to the ramp). KY LAKE is about 2.5 hour drive from me so its harder to make it there consistently. We have nowhere to tie up here due to barges that wake you if you are tied together. One of our islands has NO OPTION to back in due to a sharp drop off after about 7 foot, and the other island you can do it at if you get there early enough for a water spot (side fills quick). My boat is my favorite thing in the world (next to my son) and I treat it with great care but I just don't have the right amenities to never beach it. I understand that some of you live in places that offer every amenity one could need to boat and treat your boat with perfection. I will not be changing the setup on my boat after gaining this new knowledge. I will just do as always and try to trim up and be as good to her as I can.

Isnt it the same as the water pickups on a TRS? Since the TRS doesnt have water pickups, you have to use thru hull pickup. If you are going to use thru hull fittings, why then even use the pickup in the drive? Seems like it would just be easier to plug it & forget it & let the hull pickup do it all. **Just asking, not saying i have all the answers. ;)

I did it on a 35 Motion with 1200's. There is a place called Blarney Island in Illinois that is a true hot bed for go fast boats to hang on Thursday night drag races. It gets real shallow (4') and real muddy water. After packing the innercoolers I came up with this plan of a high water pickup to come into dock. A local 36 Skater did the same thing only with electric valves after seeing my setup. I did not want to chance losing an engine to a failed valve.

The hull pickups are almost worse as they are at the very bottom of the boat. A drive can be trimmed up.

I have hull pick ups. I have friends with drive pickups. mine sit at the same height, but they can trim up and avoid sucking sand.

Good idea. One step further is to have that valve controled by a 12v. selinoid valve then it could be done from the helm with the flick of a switch.

Oops. sorry I didn't read them all before I replied. Actually you could install a sail swich in the line that would control an indicator light on the dash. if the light is on the water is flowing through the hull intake.

I live , and boat on the coast . THis subject hits right at home for me. Last year the fourth or fifth time out for me was a 2.5 hour run to the Blues air show where it is a huge raft up party. I backed my boat right up onto the shallow sand bar , like i had done a half dozen times with smaller runabouts with zero trouble. All was good , and had no idea i had sucked the sand into both cooling systems and impacted them beyond belief. When i cranked up and left it was not 5 mins away before i started noticing the engines heating up rapidly. An 8.5 hour tow later I made it back to the dock ,(because of a dear friend). I spent 10 hours the next day cleaning engines , coolers , lines ,etc. the next weekend another 2 hours changing both seawater pumps. That sunday , Put in at a pretty nice state launch that I had no worries about , and within minutes was churning sand and mud. Almost instantly one motor was heating up. The other was fortunate enough to not clog . I loosened the hose clamp at the top of the cooler , pulled the hose , and had the wife crank the motor , luckily it wasnt impacted enough , and in a few seconds it built enough back pressure to push the sand through. Boated that day with no more issues , but very very wary of shallow water. On the way home coming into the same dock , (on low tide) , struck bottom and fought the clogging issue on both motors again. My wife is at this time "over" my boating hobby and extremely upset,and demanding we sell it.
Anyways sorry for the long write up but it was a miserable experience for me , and i have been searching for a solution to this trouble ever since. At the end of the year I sold my motors for bigger power , and hope to be reinstalling the new power within the next couple of weeks . I have bought sea strainers , knowing they probaly will not solve my problem , but if i can just clog them up only , I figure that I can clean them out a whole lot easier , than disassembling the entire cooling system.

With the above being said , I mentioned to my partner in business the other day whom is a mechanical genius , the exact same concept that you threw out there . And he said man thats a pretty good idea. But, I had never heard of this being done before. I toyed with the idea of just putting the high water pickups on the back of the boat , But could not come up with enough good info to justify cutting more holes in the back of my transom , for the faint hope of solving a problem.
SOmeone list those electric valves and I think that I might just try this.....

if you have a Grainger near by you should be able to find everthing you need there.

I would like to see some pics of the setups

I do not have pictures. But you will need a 1.25" three way ball valve. Not an on and off but a three way valve. McMaster Carr sell them. Hardware stores will not have that. You may have to bypass the sea strainer for the high water pickup. Not a big deal. Just grab the line before the sea pump somewhere and tee it.

Don't Trim Up It Sticks Nosecone Into The Bottom

How bout drilling and tapping the Y pipe outlet for the fitting? I waterjetted out fairly thick stainless steel plates , so they could handle the tapped hole easily , and no worries of adding more holes in the fiberglass. It would also be a little higher than just on the bottom .

schnydo,I do believe you are correct. The prop just sucks the sand in. I did the thru transom pickup and I love it. The only way I get sand is if the stern is grounded which is pretty hard to do. Then in order to keep water going thru the lower unit,I installed a 1"dump and hooked the hose from the lower to it.Water passes thru the lower to help keep it cool then just dumps overboard.