A pump from the heart

To purposely run editorial content that ties in with a product or service advertised in the same issue, thus further promoting that product or service, is frowned upon. Yet, in this issue, Points East is not only plugging a simple, efficient boating device that’s advertised in the magazine, we are also shamelessly donating ad space to the advertiser. Free. Gratis. So what are we playing at? Short story even shorter:
Before he retired, Durham, Maine, dentist John Bianchi sailed at every opportunity. So passionate was he about the tools, nuances and disciplines of boating, it was policy to take Fridays off from his practice to get off in Pronto, his Sea Sprite 34. “I kept my boat at a mom-and-pop boatyard/marina called Paul’s Marina, in Brunswick, Maine,” says John. “Every time I went there, owner John Marsh would ask me if I wanted a job.”
Ever the tinkerer, in 2005 John, the dentist, fashioned a bilge pump for his dinghy. “I powered the pump with some batteries from an old computer back-up power supply,” he says. “Then the notion of recharging the batteries with a small solar panel led to the prototype for the Easybailer solar-recharged small-boat pump. It performed so well for a few years, I decided to refine it after I retired.”
And retire he did, in 2008, and he went back to Paul’s Marina and asked the owner, who had offered him a job years before, Remember me? “It was a crane operation, and soon I was moving things around with heavy equipment. It was great.”
But after many years of precise work in the impossible confines of the human mouth, John felt the need for a more intricate endeavor. “When I retired I needed something to keep my hands busy,” he says. “I built 100 Easybailers, and I began selling them in 2009.”
That was the year the editor bought one for his open-cockpit, septuagenarian catboat. Seven years later, this pump still keeps rainwater at bay during the monsoons.
In 2013, John was diagnosed with prostate cancer, and, distracted by his health challenges, production of the Easybailer ceased. After two years of treatment at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, his cancer was in remission, and, with the future looking bright, his attention again turned to the Easybailer.
“I was thinking of selling kits for the pumps, but this seemed like too much work, so I worked up a set of plans,” he says. “Then it dawned on me that this would be a great way to support Dana Farber. I decided that all profits from the sale of these plans would benefit prostate cancer research.”
“Build your own bailer from detailed plans with many photos and complete parts list, $25,” reads his website (www.easybailer.com). The plans call for a 500-gph pump with an electronic water-level switch and a pump box measuring 10 inches long, five inches high and seven inches wide. Plans can be ordered (and donations made) by emailing John at easybailer@gmail.com. He will then tell you how to access the Dana Farber donation site, and your dealings with him are over.
Donations are collected on the honor system – you know, like those farm stands with tables stacked with corn, six ears for two dollars, and a cash box, where, because of the proprietors’ trust, you never feel better about dropping a few bucks. “Yesterday [Oct. 8], I sent a set of plans out, and the customer emailed that he had made a $100 donation to Dana Farber,” John says. People send $50 and $100 donations all the time.”
John insisted that this story be about Dana Farber, not his bout with prostate cancer, but he allowed himself to personalize his project a tad more. “One of the things I harp on is to get a PSA test done,” he says. “In my case, I had no symptoms of prostate cancer, but I had rising PSA numbers.
“The medical community as a group is conflicted by this because rising PSA numbers may not indicate prostate cancer. But in my case, I never would have been aware of what was going on without it.”
When I last communicated with John, on Oct. 23, he wrote, “On the road to Florida now. So far the Mariner 19 in tow is behaving.” What boat wouldn’t mind its manners, knowing her bilge would be dry no matter what the weather?
Not such a short story after all, but this is why we gave ad space to an advertiser we are touting in the same issue.