Catalina 22 cockpit drains

[Aflac1]

Need a little help here.

The 1985 Catalina 22 parked on it's trailer next to my S21 has been pretty much unattended (by the owner) for about 5 years. I keep an eye on it for him because, well because it's a sailboat!

Anyway the last time I looked at it the cockpit was full of water (mixed with leaves and misc. dirt). The boat has 2 drains, port & starboard, up front in the cockpit sole. I cleared the leaves to facilitate drainage, but resorted to running an old piece of 1/8th" shroud down the port drain to clear it. Seemed to work for a while, but as I poked it further into the drain - my piece of shroud wire came up the starboard drain!!

Evidently they're connected and for all I can tell empty somewhere in the keel recess under the boat.

It's dark so I can't tell for sure, but it doesn't look like the drains are working and the cockpit is still 1/2 full of water.

Any ideas? Happened to anyone on the forum? Got a solution?

Failing any good ideas, in the daylight, I may plug one drain hole and plunger the other.

My S21 has 2 cockpit drain holes (scuppers?) in the transom, so I'm not sure what I'm up against on this Catalina 22.

Still looking for a couple of good sailing days in West Michigan,

David.

 

[RECESS]

The drains come together in a valve in the middle and then down to the rear of the swing keel recess as you thought. If you can climb under the boat and run the wire up you may bust loose some gunk so it can drain.

 

[jrussnogle]

The simplest solution is going to be to block off one side of the cockpit drains and use a standard bathroom plunger on the other. It's a flawed system but works fairly well as long as the drain hoses are kept clear.

 

[Aldo]

Jrussnogle is right. I use a towel to block one of the drains, then plunge the other. I have a little bathroom plunger that I use to do this. I go back and forth between the two drains until both of them run freely. You may have to add water, which I do from a hose, but you may have to do with a bucket. I have seen worse systems than this one on newer boats at the boat show. I'm not a fan of the drains on the stern. The fact that your shroud line when down one drain and up the other shows how smooth the drain lines are.
What you are doing to keep your neighbor's boat's cockpit from filling with water is important. I have seen the cockpits of two neglected C-22s fill with water, and the water eventually filled the cabin of the boat and ruined otherwise nice boats.

Aldo

 

[Aflac1]

Today I went under the boat to see where the drain exits the boat. One little poke at a prospective spot and whoosh! Drained the cockpit in about 5 minutes.

I can see where the cabin might take on water if the drains didn't work long enough. What a mess that could be.

Breaks my heart to see a boat neglected when so many would be sailors would give their right arm for a boat.

 

[Bilbo]

If this were an owner's boat we should suggest the transom scupper kit from CD:

http://www.catalinadirect.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_ID=536&ParentCat=16

That much water weight on the trailer and also on the hull where it is resting on the bunks isn't good. Especially if it is leaking inside to the cabin.

 

[Captain 9330]

I usually take the debris screens out and plug one side with my thumb while putting a hose to the other side. If a hose is not nearby, I use one finger to plug one side and plunge the other side with another finger (not squeamish in the least) which usually clears it.

I saw my boat like that (with a biology experiment pond in the cockpit) when I had my first look at it before making an offer. In my upgrades a couple years later, I added transom scuppers port and starboard that have done a nice job of keeping the cockpit mostly empty when the drains got plugged for the past 22 years.

 

[Captain 9330]

drain

Here is the line drawing of the pre-'86 drain configuration.

 

[Bilbo]

One might also be able to unplug this sort of drain with a wet/dry shop vac. (Plugging one side of course.) but mind the electricity if there is a koi pond in the cockpit.

 

[Aldo]

Derek: Do you ever get water in the scuppers? When we were surfing down waves on the Chesapeake Bay this past summer, (waves about 4 feet high), I took a quick look at the stern and thought that if we had scuppers on the stern water would be pouring in them.
Aldo

 

[Captain 9330]

Aldo,

The scuppers are about a foot above the waterline and I had a similar concern when I put them in but that concern evaporated during my first launch and sail.

I have never had any water come in the scuppers. They have rubber flaps on them to prevent back flow and even when I use my garden hose to wash down the boat there isn't any back flow to speak of.

I have never had waves buffet the boat from astern that would threaten to board the boat which I credit to the boat's design and not sailing in breaking waves from astern.

BTW, when I launch at a steep ramp and the stern does its little deep dive before the boat floats off the trailer, the scuppers are still above the solid water at all times.

Derek

 

[Captain 9330]

Position of added scuppers

Took pictures of the scuppers on my sailboat this afternoon. You can see by the outside picture how high they exit on the stern, the boot stripe barely visible at the bottom of the shallow "v" of the hull. The inside picture shows the scuppers are as low in the cockpit as they can be mounted.