Seacocks
- Thread starter kvalerio
- Start date
It would be a good practice to close up your seacocks. I have to admit that I do not bother. I have never had an issue. However, if you were to speak to someone who has had the unfortunate experience of having a hose fail, I'm sure they would advise you to close them. It could sink your boat.
Our old boat, a Catalina 30, the same one I spent a long time fixing and restoring, sunk in 2007 when the new owner left the head seacock open. Many marine heads have a smooth non-barbed inlet with only room for one hose clamp (dumb designs but I won't go there)
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To make a long story short, you guessed it, the hose slid off the inlet to the head and sank the boat. The seacock on that boot took 2 seconds to close and was the result of nothing more than a bad decision..
. To make a long story short, you guessed it, the hose slid off the inlet to the head and sank the boat. The seacock on that boot took 2 seconds to close and was the result of nothing more than a bad decision..
Ask yourself this: What's your boat worth to you? A few seconds to close them when you leave...huh? You might ask yourself: What is the reason they are there?
Several years ago, the Erickson 32 next to us was hit by lightning severely damaging the electronics on that boat....Our boat did not appear to be damaged and at first we appeared to not have any damage....then had a severe reduction in water in the coolant system and discovered the large hose taking water to the stern was punctured full of holes by the lightening...alll other thru-hulls were closed as is my standard practice
only takes a minute for a lot of peace of mine.......my only point is bad storms can
damage boats and open thru-hulls scare me when I'm not present...one never knows what happens at 1:00 a.m. in a really bad electrical storm...
only takes a minute for a lot of peace of mine.......my only point is bad storms can
damage boats and open thru-hulls scare me when I'm not present...one never knows what happens at 1:00 a.m. in a really bad electrical storm...
I am sure that 99% of the boats in any marina have all their seacocks open all the time. As MS and Headmistress have pointed out, heads are notorious for sinking boats, so I always kept it closed while away. The other thru hulls were forgotten. This year I replaced the galley drain thru-hull. Now that I have seen just how big that 1 1/2 inch monster is in cross section I plan to close them all when away. Will have to make a placard warning on the pedistal to remind everyone about the raw water intake.
I close mine, routinely when not on board, and when sailing. The only ones I leave open are the engine intake and exhaust. I always worry about them, but if my boat needs to be moved by marina or mechanic staff, they may not look to check.
Me too. All other seacocks are closed when I leave the boat. Just part of the close up routine along with closing hatches, taking out the garbage, turning off the power, packing up the dirty laundry, etc. Doesn't add more than 20 seconds, but I'm sure most people don't bother.
Well If you check your hoses and clamps frequently, check on the boat at least once a week and have a slip in a marina frequented by neighbors and staff you might be OK. I close the head intake valve but leave all others open. Why the head valve? I had a head once that when the flip lever was set to wet flush it would allow water to fill and overflow the bowl. I just do not trust the gaskets and seals on them heads.
I went by our yacht club to check my boat over the weekend as we were having particularly high winds on the Great Lakes. Naturally, I drove the length of our basin to look at the neighbors in case there was a loose line - I saw at least three others out there while I was there doing the same. Frankly, unless it looked really dangerous, I would not have boarded another boat to touch a line. I suggest that the boat would have to be awfully low in the water before I would consider boarding her or calling her owner (if I could find his number even). How would you even get into that sinking boat without breaking the hatch apart? The point is that you can't depend on good neighbors and the few live-aboards to guard your property.
Thanks to all for your helpful comments and especially your personal experiences. Kopite, that is a great idea… We just finalized the purchase of the boat last week and will be sailing her home Friday. I want to make sure we are doing everything right! She is a big step up from our 1974 Bayfield 23
I close all of our through hulls every time I leave the boat. I've even driven back 20+ miles to the boat (the boat is 200 miles from home) because I forgot to close them. It gives me an opportunity to check and inspect the hose clamps regularly.
It is obviously the best practice. That being said, I don't close mine. They are located in placws that are hard to get too and to access my raw water and A/C intakes, you have to remove half the mattress in the aft cabin where I sleep. To close mine and restore the bedding in the aft cabin takes closer to 20 min than the short times others have indicated. I'm not excusing my laziness, just stating a fact.