After a few years of watching and smelling the things that deteriorated aboard his dad’s boat, the Thirsty Lady V, Al Baurley designed and placed his first prototype Dry Bilge Machine aboard to remove that last bit of standing bilge water. The very next day, Al Sr. called to say that the odor had suddenly gotten worse. Yes, the “tide” had gone out in the marsh and the engine room was dry for the first time in eight years. All the slime growth was now drying out. Nobody could say it wasn’t effective.

That first prototype held together for around 10 days. Then began the process of refining and re-engineering the yet un-named system. After two years of changes and testing to see the longevity ever increasing, the genesis of the modern Arid Bilge System was born. Dad left us back in 2012. But the family yacht still has that original two-zone system that eventually morphed into a six zone system. On board today, it keeps six bilge compartments dry, from the anchor windlass compartment all the way aft to the engine room.

Early on in 2004/05, Al produced a few of these huge early systems for friends with large yachts. Then the move to make the system smaller and cheaper for the mass market began. The current Series 9 systems were sold starting with the 2006 Ft. Lauderdale International Boat Show. Then in March of 2007, Al greatly reduced the size, introducing the Series 4 at the Palm Beach Boat Show. February 2009 witnessed the coming-out of the most popular system, the smaller Series 2. Finally, the Series 1 came out in 2015, and now Arid Bilge has a solution to wet bilges regardless of the size of the boat!