I have two cockpit drains that currently drain to skin fittings that sit below the waterline. The skin fittings have bronze gate valves that the hoses connect to, which have corroded into the open position.
I am not really comfortable with the idea of two skin fittings sitting below the waterline with these valves. I am thinking of putting a new drain fitting on the transom above the waterline that I can connect to the existing drains.
Would place a loop in the pipe to prevent back feed from any following waves that may wash up on the stern. Top of the loop would need to sit lower that the cockpit floor to make sure water still runs down hill from the sole :)
Any thoughts on if this is a workable option?
Thanks
You're very lucky to have room to install a loop in the hose, and still end up with the top of the loop being lower than your cockpit floor. I wish my cockpit was that high, because a loop would be very nice.
I did what you're proposing, except my cockpit sole (monohull) is so close to the waterline there's not enough available height to place a loop. So instead, I have to make do with a rubber flap on the outside.
The S&S has drains below the waterline. I've just replaced my valves and hoses for the same concerns you have. I looked at moving the drains and checked with other owners who have done it.
The problem with putting an outlet in the transom is the slope is too shallow to get the water out quickly. If you never go offshore it probably doesn't matter. If you do the first time you wear a greenie in the cockpit and the water level doesn't drop you will wish you hadn't changed the drains, as you man the buckets.
If you have good valves and hoses and a bung tied to the sea cock it is hard to envisage a problem occurring.
The valves have become "dezincdefied". Common problem where brass is used instead of bronze. Not sure why your boat would even need valves in this situation, presuming your talking about a Spacesailer 20. My previous yacht a quarter tonner, simply had skin fittings connected with plastic tube[eeek!]. Has lasted 40 years and still going strong. My current vessel has two 3" plastic pipes glassed over vertical in the middle/sides of the cockpit. They come out below the waterline. Easy to keep clear, trouble free.
For a small plastic yacht I would consider nylon filled plastic skin fittings, rubber hoses and decent hose clips doubled up on the bottom fittings.
Thanks gents,
I have a number of timber tapered bungs handy next to the companion way in the case that the hose or valve fails, but this has the obvious problem, that you need to be there to ram them in, pump the bilge and sit back down with a large whisky while the heart rate drops below 160 bpm...
My main concern is that some part of this system fails when we are not on the boat.
Time to drain the cockpit is not a major concern, I don't have any plans to be doing much bluewater stuff in a spacesailer 20......The freeboard is pretty comfortable for Moreton bays nasties without any major concern.
I will check the fall from the cockpit sole to a reasonable point on the transom and think more about how this might work. A job for the next antifoul haulout.
Cheers
Hi Fiesta
Just letting you know i recently replaced the cocpit drains and skin fittings on my Spacy 20 for the same reason
The skin fittings have a chamfer on the back face to allow them to sit in the recess moulded in the hull and i had to get the standard flat ones i purchased turned on a lathe to make them fit
Horrible job to fit it all up due to lack of space but hopefully i wont have to do it again for a while
Regards Don
I used this system on the folkboat and had timber bungs handy for any leaks. I had the boat for 8 years and travelled many sea miles in her never had any problems.
