At Arid Bilge Systems, we take great pride in partnering with boat builders who value comfort, craftsmanship, and cutting-edge performance. Few names in the sailing world command the level of respect of Hylas Yachts, known globally for their luxury bluewater sailboats and refined design.

Recently, we had the privilege of sailing with Kevin Wensley of Hylas Yachts and talk about how the Arid Bilge System enhances their yachts—not just in functionality, but in long-term comfort and owner satisfaction. From eliminating moisture and corrosion to preserving the “new yacht” smell years into ownership, Arid Bilge plays a vital role in upholding the standard Hylas is famous for.

As Kevin explains, everything onboard a Hylas is designed to look good, feel good, and even (especially) to smell good. Here’s our conversation. See below for a transcript of the entire interview.

Interview Transcript

Alfred: Hello, I’m Alfred Baurley with Arid Bilge Systems. Today, I’m with Kevin Wensley of Hylas Yachts. Over at Hylas Yachts, they deliver such a high quality, comfortable boat, and they reflect this with Arid Bilge System, where we deliver such a clean, fresh boating experience.

Kevin: So, first of all, welcome aboard. It’s nice to see you. Beautiful day out here on the water. I just want to point out that we’ve got about seven to eight knots of wind, if that, and the boat’s doing 6.2 over the ground. That is something special on a boat this size!

So yes, Alfred, we love the Arid Bilge System, because it does contribute to what I think is quintessentially a Hylas. And when I say quintessentially, what I mean is it needs to look good. It needs to feel good. The feel-good factor is everything is ergonomic, everything is within easy reach, everything is just push-button, the sails come out with a push of a button. Steering the boat is super easy. We’ve got controls on both helms, which is quite unique to this boat. So it looks good. It feels good. But it smells good too, so we like to think that a year after, or five years after ownership, you’ll go down below, and it’ll still smell like a new yacht. And a big part of that is making sure there’s no standing water anywhere on the boat. And your system really digs much deeper than your [regular] bilge systems. The Arid Bilge System really gets right in there and takes out every drop, so we never have to worry. It seems to be super reliable. The less times I have to visit the bilge to do anything, the happier I am and I’m sure all our owners will be as well.

Alfred: We’ve been around for about 20 years, and the Arid Bilge System is something that you would have installed on the boat, and it’s a permanently installed system where our technology is able to vacuum from your bow, mid, and stern. It gets rid of the last little bit of fluid that always accumulates, and we’re able to last so long because we’re pushing and pulling that fluid via vacuum as opposed to that fluid just being sitting down there and just causing as you said, a stinky environment, a rusty environment.

Kevin: The pump itself — not your system — the existing bilge pumps: they don’t have to work as hard. They don’t work hard, they don’t have exposure, constant exposure to the water that’s in the bilges. Their performance stays high, their longevity stays high, so the overall performance of those systems in the bilge is much higher because of what you’re doing in the outset.

If you have different metals of different nobility submerged in water, then the one with the less nobility is actually going to corrode. And that’s electrolysis, and that’s exactly what’s happening.
You’re getting two different metals, and you’re getting the water involved, and it’s creating a current and causing one of the metals to corrode.

Alfred: That’s right, when you have bilge water down there, and that would cause the conductivity when that a little bit of water is down there.

Kevin: So like I said, the only systems that we’ve really got down there are the bilge pump systems. Everything else that’s more sophisticated is located in a different part of the yacht. So I was saying earlier that you contribute to the quintessential Hylas experience. The quintessential Hylas experience is one that looks good, one that feels good, one that sounds good, and when we say sound good, the only sounds you should hear are the sounds that you want to hear. Like now, with the waves rushing along by the side of the boat, sounds great.

Alfred: It is pretty spiritual. Is that a good way to put it?

Kevin: I’d say so, yeah.

Alfred: It’s pretty spiritual, very nice, and calm. I feel like I’m almost on land. Everything is just so solid on this Hylas boat, and everything just feels so nice and calm here on this boat.

Kevin: Yeah, we like it. Again, light air, we’ve got about eight knots of wind and we’re doing 6.4 over the ground. That’s pretty cool. But anyway, we were saying it looks good, it feels good, smells good, thanks to you guys. It sounds good. In that, we don’t like to hear systems running that will bug us at night. Where your main system part or the driving part of your system is located can be pretty much anywhere on the boat, right? We’ve got ours in the engine compartment now, which is great because there’s so much insulation around there. You’ll never know it’s happening. There are alarms to let you know things are happening, but you’ll never hear the system run, which is great. So we’ve got look, feel, sound, smell, and the only thing we haven’t got is taste. And I was just trying to think of what a Hylas might taste like, if you could taste a Hylas. And I decided it would be like an angel’s tears of joy dripping on your tongue.

Alfred: Now, are you the one that made that one up?

Kevin: I’d like to say yes, because I am. I did make that up. I think it’s important to state that the Hylas Yacht is actually a very dry yacht anyway. But yes, of course, we get water in the bilge. That’s why we have pumps down there. But what we really like about your system is your system supports the existing system. Any bilge pump, in fact, there’s going to be an amount of water that’s in the hose on its way out to wherever it’s leaving the yacht. And even the best non-return valve in the world is not going to stop all the water getting back. So you’re always going to have that little bit of water.

Once you’ve got water down there and it’s standing in the humidity, of course, that evaporates and turns into condensation somewhere else in the boat. And then before you know what’s happening, you’re starting to have to deal with a little bit of mildew. If you can just keep the boat super dry without any opportunity for that to happen, then she’s going to stay smelling great. We’ve got a PSS dripless shaft seal.

The example that I had, or we had just recently, is this boat’s only just been commissioned. And we were stepping the mast, and when it rained, some of the water got in down the mast and got into the main bilges there. I was just checking it out earlier before you came along, and open it up bone dry. Perfect. That’s the kind of thing that we look to for you to back up what we think is already a pretty watertight system, but it’s also there just in case.

Alfred: You guys designed the boat to be as completely dry as possible water is a unique situation, is a unique thing. It turns into a gas, and it gets into places where you don’t want it. So water would normally come down the mast and whatnot and then get into the bilge. And it doesn’t matter how you seal that up, it still just gets down in there and at the very bottom of the bilge. And, it’s really hard to go reach down there. It’d normally be a big pain to get that last little bit of water and the bilge pump will only activate at a certain height.

Kevin: Yeah, again, your system is the backup to support the existing bilge pump. So there’s always going to be that even the best kind of non-return valves, the water that’s in that pipe, once it gets pumped up, gets back into the bilge. So just clearing up that last bit of that last maybe quarter inch of water, you guys do a great job. And you’re right, the humidity, we’re in the tropics, it’s going to get hot down there, so you’re going to get condensation, you are going to eventually get mildew growing if we don’t get rid of the water and dry things out. Like I said, it really does help with the aroma of the boat. It smells nice.

Alfred: So, a typical problem that always accumulates on boats is corrosion, mildew, paint chipping inside the bilge. So, typically, before you had an Arid Bilge System, you would have to go and do harsher cleaning duties, perhaps it was bleach, perhaps it was a bilge cleaner down below, what would the typical cleaning duties be accumulated on a vessel?

Kevin: Prior to the Arid Bilge System, we would be visiting the bilge occasionally just to get that last drop of water out. Great example is when we go to a boat show, that’s when we get really deep into it because it’s going to be open. In fact, we’ll open up in a minute and just see what it looks like downstairs. So we’d be down there with buckets and mops and we do actually try and steer away from things like bleach or really high caustic stuff. Not just because it might actually damage the gel coat, or the paintwork, or something like that, but we also don’t want to put that stuff into the environment because anything that’s in the bilge is going to end up in the ocean. And so we don’t want to go there with that.

Things that I heard about people doing — we have an owner in San Francisco with a Hylas 57, a great place to sail one of these. Before he had a Hylas, he used to go in there with a syringe. He had a little syringe that he would get in there to get that last little drop. As soon as you can remove any of that kind of activity in there, mopping in there, with a bucket in there, with a syringe in there, and vinegar water for us is pretty much as strong as it’s going to get, in terms of what we’re using around the boat. Once you don’t have to get in there with any of that, then life is good, you don’t have to worry about it too much. And a clean boat is a happy boat, and I got to tell you. With your system, everything’s happy on board.

Alfred: So, the Arid Bilge System is also a leak detector. As opposed to that water causing a big lake down there, you normally would have a big lake down there, and what if you have a leak? You can’t find that leak. And the Arid Bilge System will suck that up, and you would find normally a clean trail of fluid coming back from that source of where the leak is coming from. The customer could come and see that, “Hey, I got a leak right there.” Just becomes an early leak detector.

Kevin: Yeah, the old school would be you’ve got a leak. Obviously, you’ve got water accumulating. You’re trying to find the source of the leak. You got a big puddle, you dry it out put down a paper towel maybe, and just see where the water starts coming in. With the Arid Bilge System because the water is being taken out all the time, you’ll probably see a constant or some definitive trail of water. The sooner we can see or identify where the water’s coming from, the sooner we can put a stop to it. But, the water that gets into our bilge area is pretty much removed from any of the sophisticated systems.

However, if there is salt water in anybody’s bilge, and we’re underway in any kind of motion, that’s going to start splashing and swishing around. And so if you have anything that’s exposed, certainly salt water and metals, they’re going to start corroding. The only thing that’s down there that does suffer with having excess water, is the pump itself, the actual bilge pump, the one that you’re supplementing. So your system means that system doesn’t ever have to work as hard as it would have had to in the past. What you do actually helps prolong the life and keeps the performance level of the existing bilge pumps.

Alfred: All right, so the Arid Bilge System, we co-exist so well with your bilge pump as we take out that last little bit of water. And the bilge pump is only really there for the emergency because of that, the Arid Bilge System does, in fact, protect your generator, your gyro, your generator wiring, all that stuff in the local environment, including your bilge paint.

Kevin: The thing to keep in mind here is sure, if it’s saltwater, salt is highly corrosive. So you get saltwater on anything that’s metal, it’s going to deteriorate. The way we’re set up on this particular yacht, it’s got a pretty narrow and a pretty deep bilge so when the water gets in there, it’s got quite a way to come back out again. But sure — we’re a sailboat. When we’re underway, we’ve got a lot of motion going on. When we’re hitting waves, it’s a smooth motion through the water, but we’re rocking around, and that water’s going to move about, it’ll start to splash and spray. So yeah, avoiding getting any salt or any water on anything that’s corrodible is key.

And again, keeping the place super dry is going to avoid issues with other bits of equipment down the line. I like the thing you mentioned earlier to me the other day. I was talking about how this supplements the existing bilge pumps. The fact that the existing bilge pumps aren’t working all the time. It actually means that the life of that pump is going to be extended because it’s not going to have to run as much.

Alfred: The Arid Bilge System is your primary system, and we’re really lasting for five, ten years before it has to go and have a minimum service on it. Anyway, Kevin, the Arid Bilge System is fairly hands-off that’s what we typically hear from all our OEM builders. It’s typically something that you would just install, and it’s plug and play, and it’s really easy to install. They would say that because they didn’t hear back from it, they were assuming that it’s running so well.

Kevin: Yeah, I think it’s fair to say in the absence of any feedback from any of our clients to the contrary your system seems to be very reliable. And it’s something that I think you would notice was failing pretty quickly. If you’ve got water in the bilge, then your system isn’t working. It’s good that we don’t hear about it.

From my point of view, I like to promote technology that’s an improvement, which is yours, what you’ve done for us, but that’s also reliable. And this one actually keeps people from having to get into the bilge very often on all those counts, that’s great news for us.

Alfred: We last so long, as long as everything is just perfectly installed correctly, everything is tuned correctly, having your tubing lengths correct, having the discharge going inside of a correct drainage discharge, and it’s not backflowing back inside the system.

Kevin: Great. Clearly, I don’t do the installation. So the guys at the factory, I believe, are very happy with the support that you give them. They need to know the technicalities of exactly where to put this stuff, and how long the tube should be or not be, and that kind of thing. I understand that you do have good communication, either via Christian, our service director, or directly with the factory. The fact that you have great quality control, you talk to the factory or Christian directly to make sure that we’re making the installation, so that that we’re going to have no failing in the foreseeable future, you’re saying five to ten years is pretty standard for you guys. If we can expect that, and you give us the after-sales service in terms of, if a client has got something to say about anything, you’re willing to come in and help out, then, again, we’re very happy with what you do for us. Thanks.

In the years that we’ve had your system available to our clients, I can’t think of an occasion where we’ve had any problems at all. The installation, of course, is always going to be a bit challenging. But once we’ve done that, all that kind of bugs are worked out of the system.

Alfred: The Arid Bilge System is very efficient with its power draw. It draws at its peak less than an amp, and that’s when it’s actually vacuuming, and then that’s when you’re actually hearing the system running. It’s creating the vacuum side of the collection chamber, and that’s when it’s actually hitting its peak. Then it opens up the valve on the side of the unit, and that’s your actual intake valve, and then it doesn’t draw really any more power. It’s just in the standby phase where fluid is actually just coming through, and then it just keeps on running. Very efficient for sailboats in that regard, too, because you want to make sure that everything’s very efficient power-wise on a sailboat.

Kevin: What I do know is that when it’s working, the bilge is dry. That’s a good thing. You also mentioned that you’re only using less than an amp when we’re at the peak of performance, which is great. And then you also said two amp hours a day would be what I could expect to be using. Given that we’re a lifestyle-based kind of yacht and how we live is important to us on board, we’ve got air conditioning we can run all night without having to run a generator because we do have the lithium-ion batteries. They have a bank of over 800 amp powers anyway. We’ve got the solar panel putting out over 1,500 watts for us at any given moment at the peak of performance. So we’ve got a lot of power going in, we do have a generator, we need a generator every now and again if we’ve had a night without any generator, and enjoy the air conditioning, and we want to have a hot shower in the morning and we want to run the kettle, and we want to do all kinds of stuff to make the hot coffee, get the blender going, whatever you’re going to do, we do need to recharge but, at the end of the day it’s good to know that we have a system that delivers in terms of the lifestyle and the ambience, and how we feel on board, and only takes up two amp hours a day.

To me, it’s a no brainer. Good for you guys. You’ve come up with something that doesn’t take much power and does a great thing for the yacht.

Alfred: Especially in the sailing boat community, you want to have a system that is both reliable and very little draw into power. You want to be as efficient as possible.

Kevin: So, by virtue of what we do, sailing, that means we’re not actually generating power beyond what we need with the sails. So we do have to be careful with the resources that we have. We have limited resources in many ways. We have limited resources in terms of fuel. We have limited resources in terms of water on board to drink. We have limited resources in terms of electricity. And anything that’s a big drawer on any of those can become a problem for us.

So you do a great job. You make it fun to live on board. You make it smell nice, and you don’t take much power. You’re a win. Speaking of the hardtop and the solar panels, I think we’ve got 1,500 watts of power coming out of that with the sun directly overhead and at the peak, yeah. It’s not like we’re shy of using energy. It’s just if you have any limited resource you want to be very careful with what you do with it. Fuel, electricity, holding tanks, it’s all stuff that you need to monitor. And if you’re only drawing two amp hours a day, we can certainly live with that.

Alfred: Would you say that the Hylas is more efficient power-wise than a majority or most other sailboats?

Kevin: I wouldn’t say we were necessarily more efficient. I think it’d be fair to say that we’ve thought an awful lot about how the boat is going to be used and what kind of lifestyle our clients want to enjoy. So we have make sure that we have ways of refilling or rejuvenating the power that we need to run things like air conditioning, to run things like pumps, and to run the winches to run the thruster systems, those kinds of things. We got plenty of power to do that. And we do it as efficiently as we can.

But could it be possible to build a yacht and not use as much energy as we do? Of course, it could be possible to do that, but then you wouldn’t also have the lifestyle that you enjoy when you’re on a Hylas Yacht. So we like to sleep through the night without the generator running with the air conditioning. We like to take showers in the morning with hot water even though the boat hasn’t had its engine running. We like to do those kinds of things. So we’re a high performance cruiser, we’re not a racing yacht. So that’s important to keep in mind. And using lithium, we have big battery banks in terms of the power that we can store, but the actual physical size of the batteries aren’t that big. So we keep the weight down and the power up and that’s a big plus for a sailboat.

Alfred: So anyway, when I actually opened up, for example, the engine room door, I just noticed how thick, how strong it was, and that’s just another indication that you’re, the noise dampening and the heat insulation is so powerful on this boat, and overall I just noticed that this boat is just such a eloquently reliable yacht, is that a way to put it?

Kevin: Yeah, so I describe her as being very capable. So no matter how lively the conditions get, you’re going to be okay in this yacht. So know that she’ll take care of you. You just need to take care of her. But when she’s taking care of you, she’s not going to just make it comfortable, she’s also going to make it feel safe, luxurious, and quiet. And all of those things lend to a really positive experience for you and your family, your most precious cargo. It’s something that Hylas prides itself on. We take people down below and it’s nasty weather, and they go, “Wow, this is just so quiet, and it smells so nice. And do you have Arid Bilge?” And we say, “Yes, that’s why.”

Alfred: Kevin, where is the system installed?

Kevin: The unit itself that does all the work, the brains, if you will, of the whole system is in our engine compartment. Great spot to have it, by the way, because it’s very insulated in terms of sound. And then the pickup, so on this yacht, there are three isolated zones.

So we’ve got a zone at the bow, where the anchor locker is and the sail locker is. And then behind that is a collision bulkhead so that should you damage the front of the yacht, the water is never going to get past that collision bulkhead. And then we have another bulkhead at the back of the boat, so that should we have a failure behind the master stateroom, then that’s an isolated center as well, an isolated part of the yacht as well.

So your pickups, one is in our main bilge, which is here in the main salon area below the sail there, and the other is in the aft section where the lockers are and the steering system is rudder post. So if any water gets in there, then your system’s taking care of that for us as well. So in summary, we’ve got three units. The one at the front, we don’t worry about too much. That’s the anchor locker. Water’s going to be getting in there all the time. And it all just drains straight out. And then we’ve got the living area, which we have a system for. And then we have the back area that has some through holes. So you may run the risk of getting water in there as well.

So the two pickups, one in the main salon, one in the off section, and the brains of the whole thing. And the functionality, I guess of the whole thing is in the engine compartment where it’s intubated from any kind of sound.

Alfred: Yeah. And it’s all in the center of the brains of the unit. Okay. For the cost and the benefit of the system, the system will go and pay for itself because it really pays for itself. It’ll go ahead and keep everything nice, fresh, and clean.

Kevin: Absolutely 100%. The clean, dry and fresh, they are the things that is very important to us and the quality of life on board. And if you’re going to spend over $2 million on a yacht, you’d expect the bilges to be dry. In that regard, thanks very much. Clean, dry, and fresh, that’s almost priceless. I don’t know what you charge us, but like I say, if you’ve spent that much money on your yacht, you expect to have that quality experience.

Alfred: So our products are assembled in Florida, and we believe in only delivering the highest possible quality of products, and that also reflects with you guys.

Kevin: Sure. Certainly, quality and service, it’s something we pride ourselves on, and Hylas has a great reputation for that. Nice that you’re being manufactured in Florida. Our service center is here in Fort Lauderdale in Florida. So that’s worked out for us.

For us, the service and support is for the lifetime of the yacht. It’s not for the lifetime of ownership. The boat might be sold on to somebody else. But if you own a Hylas, you can call up and you’ll get some kind of a response about anything whether you need a replacement part, whether you want to understand how something works, whether you want to buy a new yacht or not and trade up, something like that. We’ll be there to support you. We’re a boutique yard. We produce maybe eight yachts a year, something like that. And our clients are on first-name terms with the people that actually built the boat. And in the same way as I might reach out to the guys that do our spas like Seldon or the sales like North sales, I might reach out to their guys to say, “Hey, can you help my client understand more about those particular features?” I may call up Alfred and say, “Hey, I’ve got a client here that just wants to understand how the Arid Bilge System works that well and how it’s going to deliver on what he’s paying for it.” And I’m sure you’ll be the first to step up and say, “I’d love to tell him all about it. Come on down.”

Alfred: We also pride ourselves very much with having the highest possible quality customer service as well. We’re based, as I said, here in Florida, and we like to go and see all our customers, all our builders. I’m absolutely astounded with our customer service, and just the longevity overall with the system. And ultimately, I believe that’s the American experience to go and deliver a highest possible quality service and that’s what I just see with you guys, a reflection as well with you guys.

Kevin: I’d like to think of it as an Anglo-American experience when you’re talking to me. But no, I get where you’re coming from, and yes, there’s a lot of synergy between the way we want to operate our businesses. For that reason, thanks again for what you do for us, and I hope this relationship lasts for a very long time.

Alfred: Kevin, I really appreciate this opportunity, this time on this boat. This has honestly been a real privilege to be out on this boat, directly seeing the sail. It just feels so comfortable. And again, thank you for this opportunity. It’s just been a wonderful experience.

Kevin: Great. So the keywords when you’re thinking about a Hylas are actually, I think, performance, quality, and service but clean, dry, and fresh, that lends a lot to that whole quality feel. So the Arid Bilge delivers that 100%, so life on board is fun and special all the time.

The other thing that I’ve enjoyed today is the opportunity to come for a sail with you guys. I’d like to share with anyone, and you and your audience, that if you want to come down and see the Arid Bilge System, then you’re very welcome to come aboard and check it out. And if you’re thinking about buying a yacht, then you’re very welcome to come for a sail with us. We love going out, any excuse. And a Hylas Yacht experience is something you’ll remember for a very long time. And if you’re lucky, you might even get to buy one.

Alfred: It’s honestly a real privilege to be on this boat. So again, I really thank you for this time and this opportunity, and yeah, thank you for your time.

Kevin: Great pleasure. Good to have you on board.

Alfred: Thank you.