What is the best practice with seacocks, open or closed when leaving the boat for a number of days?
Seacocks
- Thread starter Quoddy
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We need more information to answer your question.
Do you want to keep the boat or would you rather have the insurance money?
Raising the boat and paying for the environmental clean up could well use up more than the insurance money so you might want to close the sea cocks in either case.
Except, of course, the cockpit drain seacocks (if applicable). Don't want the cockpit to be a puddle.
Which is why cockpit drains should exit above the waterline. They don't on a lot of boats but that's one of many common design defects.
I modified the long drains with seacocks on my boat to simple, straight through, drains that I can clear with a stick. I can see the water come almost up to the top when going fast under power or sailing hard but have never had water come back into the cockpit. If a wave does flood the cockpit, the shorter and straighter the run of the drains, the faster it will empty.
I am waiting unitl I get insurance before I leave mine open when I go home.
As Roger said you have to drain the oil out of the engine before leaving them open while you are away.
As Roger said you have to drain the oil out of the engine before leaving them open while you are away.
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