Closing Seacocks

[Tmacmi]

How religious are you about closing the seacocks if you leave your boat for a week or two?

I have four seacocks, 2 for sink drains, 1 for head intake, 1 for motor cooling.

Do you have a departure check list to make sure you remember to open a critical seacock like the motor?

[HopCar]

Never closed them. I bought good hose. I did exercise them once in awhile.

[SalishDreamer]

This is probably one of the questions where you could ask 50 different boaters and get 50 different answers... Personally I would rather keep up on though-hull and hose maintenance, combined with faith in my bilge pumps, than have to open and close the seacocks all the time. That said, I live on my boat and rarely go more than a day or two without being there.

If you do intend to leave your boat for longer than that, it certainly wouldn't hurt to close them. If you do, I would strongly suggest some sort of routine (checklist or otherwise) to make sure they are open before you start the motor etc.

Really, it will come down to your preference and faith in your equipment. If it will give you more peace of mind when you're away from the boat, if say it's worth the couple of minutes (especially since you don't have many to open and close).

[Dsanduril]

Don't close them myself for short term (weeks) but do if it's winter storage. Used to know someone whose "checklist" was hanging the engine key on the cooling water seacock handle when he closed it. To start the engine you had to go grab the key off the seacock, and presumably remember to open it when you did. Of course all the bad guys then know where to look for the key

[SalishDreamer]

Originally Posted by Dsanduril

Don't close them myself for short term (weeks) but do if it's winter storage. Used to know someone whose "checklist" was hanging the engine key on the cooling water seacock handle when he closed it. To start the engine you had to go grab the key off the seacock, and presumably remember to open it when you did. Of course all the bad guys then know where to look for the key[emoji3]

Probably a better place to keep it than in the ignition like some boats I've seen....

I personally am a big fan of checklists and/or habit based routines. Maybe from my aviation background. Some would call it the "if you can start it, you can steal it" mentality. [emoji38]

[SVTatia]

All seacocks on my boat are only open when there is someone aboard.

[verb88]

when living on the boat, we left them open... a failed hose, etc would make itself known....

close them when off the boat for extended time (few days plus..)

[RentDubaiYachts]

Hey, thanks for the question.

As SalishDreamer already said, it completely depends on the sailer, one can give you one answer and another a completely different perspective.

I usually keep mine open and don't worry much about it.

What do you do? Found a solution?

[rbk]

Close them when I leave as it helps to exercise them. If I forget I don’t worry as all my hoses are new and double clamped. No checklist just part of closing up.

[Dockhead]

Here's a guy who didn't close his sea cocks:





Snapped just two days ago in Denmark.


So what was the question -- how religious are you about closing your sea cocks when you're off the boat?


My answer is -- religious. I never leave seacocks open if I'm off the boat even one night. That's the rule on my boat.



Three important bonuses from having such a practice are (a) you keep the sea cock valves exercised and they last longer; (b) you keep yourself intimately familiar with every sea cock and its location -- it gets into muscle memory, and in a crisis this could save your boat; (c) by frequently operating them, you keep a better eye on the sea cocks, their condition, and the hoses, clamps, and their condition -- it is important to see deterioration early and to be aware of what's going on with your underwater fittings and plumbing.



I do not recommend to anyone being lax about closing sea cocks. Just do it!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by SVTatia

All seacocks on my boat are only open when there is someone aboard.

[Mediator]

We close all seacocks whenever we leave the boat, ever. The two exceptions are our cockpit drains, which we always leave open.

It takes less than 60 seconds to close them all and we sleep better at night. It seems to me that plumbing leaks are a common cause of sinking and yet one of the most preventable. But everyone has their own risk assessments.

[Tmacmi]

Originally Posted by RentDubaiYachts

Hey, thanks for the question.

As SalishDreamer already said, it completely depends on the sailer, one can give you one answer and another a completely different perspective.

I usually keep mine open and don't worry much about it.

What do you do? Found a solution?

Until now, I've never had a boat that had seacocks so I didn't know recommended protocol.

I have maintenance to do on one stuck seacock and one drippy one (both tapered cone). That's what got me to thinking.

We live about 2 hours from the boat and there will be times when it goes 2 weeks without someone on board.

I like the idea of the check list on the key and putting the key on the seacock. Or perhaps closing all but the engine to reduce odds. Mine currently have double hose clamps, but the hoses appear to be original green garden hoses. I'll change those this winter.

[HopCar]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Here's a guy who didn't close his sea cocks:


Attachment 202698


Snapped just two days ago in Denmark.


So what was the question -- how religious are you about closing your sea cocks when you're off the boat?


My answer is -- religious. I never leave seacocks open if I'm off the boat even one night. That's the rule on my boat.



Three important bonuses from having such a practice are (a) you keep the sea cock valves exercised and they last longer; (b) you keep yourself intimately familiar with every sea cock and its location -- it gets into muscle memory, and in a crisis this could save your boat; (c) by frequently operating them, you keep a better eye on the sea cocks, their condition, and the hoses, clamps, and their condition -- it is important to see deterioration early and to be aware of what's going on with your underwater fittings and plumbing.



I do not recommend to anyone being lax about closing sea cocks. Just do it!

European crap DZR brass seacock. Maybe not even a flanged seacock. A lot of European boats just have ball valves screwed onto a thru-hull made from DZR brass. If the seacock fails, doesn’t matter if it was open or closed.

I kept three boats in the water totaling over fifty years. Never had a hose failure.

[MV Wanderlust]

Our boat is in Florida so it stays in the water year 'round in one of the safest marinas on the west coast. The marina has a lot of liveaboards and we are friends with most of them and the marina management. We live an hour away and typically are only aboard during the weekends. If circumstances were different, we might close our seacocks but we not only leave them open but we also leave the keys in the ignition. Our hoses are inspected and maintained regularly. In the rare event of a fire, we want someone to be able to jump aboard and start her up without looking for keys or worrying about seacocks being open.

We also keep our fuel and water tanks full in case there is a zombie apocalypse and we have to bug out quickly.