Beware of Cockpit Drains!!!!!!!!!

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J

Jim

Thank you to everyone who has helped by taking the time to reply to my post about New Boat Need Info. I want to thank the person who said to check the hoses connecting the cockpit drains to the "t" in the stern of the boat. I got someone much smaller than I to go back in the area and give the hoses a gentle tug. They came off in his hand. Everything is below the waterline and would have sunk the boat!. I ended up replacing the old hoses (original) with 1.5 inch (inside dia.) thick walled waste hoses that are made to use with a marine head. I double clamped everthing and tested them by stopping up the drain in the bottom of the boat and filing the cockpit with water. No leaks! I appreciated the advice. Does anyone know why there is a valve on the drain line for the sink? I saw the valve with the handle on it in the storage compartment in the Starboard quarter birth. Why the valve? Any help appreciated. Does anyone know where to get the handles to the rope stoppers for the halyards? Thank you Jim Joint Venture 22 Port of Kansas City
 
Oct 17, 2004
144
Seafarer 30 Paris Landing
Isolation

I believe that you will find that any thru-hull connection that is normally under water will have an isolation valve at the hull for safety reasons. There is a good article about seacock valves in a recent issue of Good Old Boat magazine. My cockpit drain line outlet is not normally underwater when sitting in a slip so a seacock does not seem necessary. Mine submerges while we are sailing. The cockpit drain hose on an H22 also tends to sag down and have a low spot in the hose. This may not be an issue. However, I was concerned about hose failure from water freezing in the low spot of the hose. I cut a 1 foot section of pressure treated 4X4 and put it under the cockpit drain hose "T" to get rid of the sag in the hoses. I'm not clear about the halyard question you are asking. Do you have a picture you can post? Where do you sail around Kansas City?
 
Mar 24, 2005
39
Catalina 27 Overland Park, KS.
Joint Venture 22

Jim, I used to see a "Joint Venture" moored at lake Jacomo. I noticed yo uare from KC. Was that your boat? Tim timbarnby2001@yahoo.com
 
Dec 2, 1997
9,005
- - LIttle Rock
Reason for seacock on sink drains...

Sailing with below-waterline thru-hulls open can cause water to be forced up the line by the pressure of the water against the hull, flooding the sink (or toilet). It's also important to make sure to close all seacocks when leaving the boat...open seacocks when no one is aboard is leading cause of boats sinking in the slips from a siphon or a failed hose connection. Now I have a question: WHY would cockpit drains exit a hull below waterline? I've never seen a boat on which they were...because that defeats the whole purpose...in fact, many a boat has sunk when the weight of snow/ice lowered the waterline enough to put the cockpit drain scuppers below the waterline, sending water INTO the cockpit instead of draining it. You can't sail with 'em open either...'cuz if they're in the side of the boat, water can be forced up the drain while heeled...in the stern a following sea would push water up 'em. And if you have to close all below-waterline thru-hulls when away from the boat--which you definitely should!--the cockpit can't drain, so they're useless then too. So what possible reason can there be for putting cockpit drain thru-hulls below the below-waterline???
 
P

Pete

Sink drain valve (seacock)

All H22's and thousands of other boats have thru-hull below water line drain valves (seacocks. The purpose of the valve is to enable the thru-hull opening to be closed in the event that the drain pipe fails. The elevation of the sink drain prevents it from draining above the waterline. The original brass gate valve, although durable, is prone to corrosion and like any gate valve, it will get worse with time. Newer replacement valves made of plastics seem to be a better alternative and as they are ball-type valves, much quicker to open or close.
 
C

chris

peggy

We used to have a 1970 catalina 22 before we moved up to our Hunter 27. The catalina cockpit drains drained through a below-the-waterline thru-hull. As you stated, the sea-cock must be left open when leaving the boat or the cockpit will not drain. Since we leave our boat permananently in the salt water of SF bay, I can tell you that a lot of my hair turned gray always being nervous about the safety of the boat!
 
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