Without any knowledge of your system, it is very hard to give an explanation, however I shall give a possible scenario, based upon the names.
A vacuum priming unit sounds like the primer for the main ballast pumps. You should have these fitted, I guess. Will be big buggers, they can normally shift a lot of water pretty damn quick!! Normally a ballast pump would be a centrifugal pump (at least the ones I have seen were), which needs priming before it will work. This will be the job of your vacuum priming unit I guess.
The stripping pump sounds like it should be a second pump, which is used to get the remnants out the tanks. At least, that was what stripping was on the tankers I served on. So I would guess this pump is used once the tank levels drop to a certain level.
As I said, hard to say without more details. Can you at least give us an idea what type of ship you are on? There maybe someone here who has sailed them before, and can answer more accurately than my guess!!
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Ballast system troubles
Could someone please explain to me how the ballast system works, It has a vacuum priming unit and a stripping ejector and I'm not so sure how these work together... I think I understand the basics but the crews terrible English language skills are getting me no closer to understanding lol. Ive had the books out and read my college notes but there is no mention of these components and I would just like to know a bit more... Any help is appreciated
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