Where does the sink drain??

[john6206]

Hi everyone.
Excuse the rookie question. Just bought a ‘95 Catalina 320, didn’t come with an orientation - we have A LOT of questions.

Im trying to determine where things drain. Internet seems to think it drains into the bilge. It does not. My next thought is it drains overboard, can’t find it!

It does not seem to drain into the holding tank- but it’s gotta go somewhere!

My current thinking is that it drains overboard, but below the waterline, and I just can’t see it draining.

Any thoughts?

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

What do you see when you open the cabinet below the sink?
More important, Do you know where all the thruhulls are? And if they work?

 

[kappykaplan]

Do you know where all the thruhulls are? And if they work?

 

[john6206]

I had the surveyor pay special attention to thruhulls, because my trailer boats never had them and frankly they frighten me!

He said they were all good.

 

[David in Sandusky]

Our sink drains theough a hose that goes straight down below the sink to a through hull with a valve directly below it.

Don's advice is key for a new boat owner. You need to discover all of the through hulls on your boat, because failure of any one of them can quickly sink your boat!

The Catalina 320 boat manual will identify the standard through hulls that were there when they shipped the boat. Unfortunately there is not a copy in the Catalina owners section of this website.

Then there are through hulls installed by prior owners. If they exist, they are probably not documented. So there are three ways to find them:
1. The owner you bought the boat from, who may or may not know where they are.
2. A careful search of the interior of the boat, trying to follow every drain or other water source in the boat, then tracing the piping that takes the water overboard. Sometimes, water is just drained to the bilge, where the bilge pump moves it out.
3. If your boat is somewhere around Ann Arbor, MI, it will be pulled out of the water away from the winter ice. Once it is out, you can inspect the bottom of the hull and identify all of the through hulls.

The 320 is a great boat. The big difference between a Catalina 18 and your 320 is that the 320 has a lot more systems! (safety, water, electric - 12 and 110 volts, electronics, a stove, maybe a wheel, a refrigerator, a grill, a microwave, or an autopilot, etc.) So a good idea is to have a getting underway checklist, to be sure every system is ready to go before you leave the dock.

A final suggestion. When we moved from decades of sailing a Sunfish to our Hunter 27, I hired an experienced sailboat trainer to spend a day sailing with us. It turned out the two most memorable lessons of the day were safety, and boat systems. Although not an expert on our boat, the trainer found all of our through hulls, and identified all of the systems to check on our boat before we left the dock.

Fair winds and following seas.

 

[Don S/V ILLusion]

I had the surveyor pay special attention to thruhulls, because my trailer boats never had them and frankly they frighten me!

He said they were all good.

That’s good, however, the surveyor isn’t responsible for the safety of your boat and everyone sailing on it.
You need to know where they are and how to ensure they are working properly and equally important, you need to know how to stop a leak should one fail. That’s not the time to be searching.

Did you find the sink drain line?

 

[BigEasy]

I had the surveyor pay special attention to thruhulls, because my trailer boats never had them and frankly they frighten me!

You should become intimately familiar with ALL of the thru hull fittings on your boat. Your owner’s manual should have details about the location & function of each thru hull assembly. Nothing to be frightened about! They may be labeled already; if they are not labeled & you think that might cause confusion in future, go ahead & label them yourself with labels on a plastic sheet that fixed to the thru hull with zip ties. Very important to purchase a set of wooden plugs to plug the thru hull from inside or outside the boat if there is catastrophic failure of the thru hull fitting or valve. Many advocate identifying the correct size plug & attaching it to the thru hull assembly for use in an emergency. Finally, exercise the valves monthly to keep them operating freely & lubricate them when you haul out in fall. If you have bronze fittings, note any corrosion on the surface & replace it if pink discoloration appears due to de-zincing. Check the hoses for cracks & signs of aging. Good idea to keep the valves closed unless you are using the galley sink, head, etc. And, be sure to close all the valves when leaving the boat. With proper inspection & care, thru hulls will last at least a decade & more. Congrats on the purchase of your new boat!

 

[Calif. Ted]

There is a little door under the navigation table to access the galley sink thru-hull. The head sink drain is behind the little door under the sink.

 

[BigEasy]

If there isn’t an owner’s manual with plumbing schematic available, here is a list of the common thru hull assemblies.
1. Galley sink
2. Head / lavoratory sink
3. Head flush intake
4. Head discharge
5. Engine fresh water intake
6. Air/heat water intake & discharge ( if air/heat present)
7. Generator water intake & discharge. (If genset present)
8. Cockpit scupper sometimes has a drain line & thru hull assembly.
9. Depending on the type of shaft seal present, there may be a cooling water line with thru hull fitting

 

[Foswick]

Yes, the drain probably goes pretty much straight down from the sink through a through-hull - hopefully via a seacock mounted close to the hull. As stated by others, it is important to know for sure by simply putting eyes on it. It if is not really obvious when you look, then you probably have something odd going on and that might be dangerous. Just not knowing is actually a bit dangerous itself.

Many people close this seacock whenever the sink is not in use or, at least, when the boat is unattended. Whether or not you feel that is important is up to you. At minimum, it deserves regular visual inspection, as do all holes through the boat below the waterline.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Ted identified the location. The galley sink drains directly below the sink with relatively few diversions. You probably have a 2 basin sink so both drains tee together and then drop down behind the drawers under the sink. There is a lot of plumbing in that tight space behind that little door under the nav station.

While you are investigating plumbing, be sure to study the sink drain in the head for connections. There are 2 thru hulls that you should locate within the sink cabinet and, again, there is a lot of plumbing to observe in a tight space constrained by drawers. One thru hull is raw water intake for the toilet and possibly a freshwater washdown hose (at the anchor locker). The other thru hull is for the sink drain (below waterline again) and probably has a connection to pump out the shower drain in the head. I have 2 pumps in that space and the multiple connections with 4 separate functions was quite confusing. I'm not even sure I'm describing it correctly now!

 

[john6206]

Thanks everyone. Yes, it was pretty obvious once you pointed it out!
located all the through hulls and checked the sea cocks.

Justin took possession of the boat two days ago.
trying to punch through a very long checklist before we start our 400nm delivery cruise.
Im getting pretty overwhelmed, everything on the list takes twice as long as estimated.

For example: nice surprise, the boat has a Dutchman flaking system on the main.
Bad surprise, try to find rigging instructions online for a Dutchman system!

Took about 4 hours to install the main. Have yet to install the Genoa yet.

Great news is that the joker valve really did only take 5 or 10 minutes!

conflicting goals are to get out on Manitowoc as soon as possible, and be be relatively comfortable before we leave. Comfortable that we can handle the boat, and comfortable that we’ve done what we can for best odds of no major systems failures between here and Tawas.

Having lived with it for two days, impression of the boat is that the first two owners took really good care of her. Maintenance logs are very detailed. After that there is no evidence of care, and plenty of evidence of neglect. Broker said it was launched last year, but never left the dock.

Still have a million questions.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

For example: nice surprise, the boat has a Dutchman flaking system on the main.
Bad surprise, try to find rigging instructions online for a Dutchman system!

Took about 4 hours to install the main. Have yet to install the Genoa yet.

Still have a million questions.

It's always more difficult when you don't have anybody around who is familiar with the systems.

But the Dutchman shouldn't be that difficult. First step for me is to flake the main on as normal (no need to sort out the Dutchman). Attach the bottom end of the Dutchman to the end of the boom and attach the top end to the topping lift and then raise the topping lift to stretch out the filaments. Done.

Perhaps your system was totally disassembled and you needed to feed the filaments? That would be a nuisance. When we purchased the boat, the filaments were attached and adjusted and attached to the mainsail. I haven't needed to make any changes or adjustments in now the 6th season of flaking the mainsail. The filaments have never broken and flaking the main has never been a problem. When I put the sail away in the winter, the system is just bundled with the main and ready to go next year.

Good news that you have sorted it. There shouldn't be any difficulty raising the genoa as long as you have the right shackles handy. Do you have a Schaefer furler? One thing that I have found to be an issue is that the drum will bind readily if you don't keep some tension on the furling line when rolling the sail out. I loop the line around the cleat once so that I don't burn my hand if a strong wind wants to take that last bit of sail out too fast.

 

[Scott T-Bird]

Sounds like you won't be departing on a Friday ... that's a good thing! Have fun on your journey. I bet you will be in love with your boat before you reach your home port!

 

[Calif. Ted]

One thing that I have found to be an issue is that the drum will bind readily if you don't keep some tension on the furling line when rolling the sail out.

A rigger friend told me to use a rachet block on the furling line for this purpose, works well, I don't need to hold the furling line as sail goes out.
Harken Carbo Ratchet Block - 57 mm (2 1/4") - 7402 | Defender Marine
https://www.harken.com/en/support/tech-articles/ratchet-blocksthey-dont-just-go-click/
Make sure both upper and lower drums spin easily on the furler, early 2100 Schaefers did not haves holes in the lower drum to allow flushing with fresh water. Flush both drums with fresh water before raising the sail.
Domestic water systems had some changes over the years, my boat has a wye valve under head sink that switches pump between shower sump and icebox drain.

 

[john6206]

I didn’t mean to say that I was still trying to figure out the Dutchman. I just meant to say that it was several hours in the cockpit trying to figure it out.

The breakthrough was figuring out that it attaches to the topping lift.

Today’s headache is that the water stopped flowing. We’ve spent a couple days trying to run the antifreeze out of the system, and suddenly the water stopped. The pump is a lot quieter than it was before.

I’m trying to figure out how to open the basket that has the filter in it. Seems like it should just be a “lefty loosey” type thing, but I’m afraid if I twist any harder I’ll break it!

 

[john6206]

@Scott T-Bird
The Schafer was one of this mornings butt scratch moments.
It was actually way easier than rigging the roller curling on my C-18. The only ponder was that there are two tracks the bolt rope could go into. Same size, right next to each other.
After pondering a bit, I thought the dirty track was the one to use.
Then after we finished the install I thought the clean track must be the one that was used last, because bringing the sail down would essentially wipe it clean.

 

[john6206]

@Scott T-Bird
Good ‘heads up’ on keeping tension on the furling line. I always keep tension on the sheet when im bringing it IN, but I usually just let the furling line go when im letting it OUT.

 

[john6206]

Yup - I can’t say for sure that screen was the “only” problem, but I can’t imagine how ANY water was getting through it.

waaaaay more disgusting than swapping the joker valve!

 

[john6206]

And holy crap we have water pressure now!