Reaching a seacock when your arms aren't long enough

[Canibul]

Originally Posted by indiana_ct

Stony Cove is about 20 miles away, and I know divers who talk about it but I've never been. I'm more of a lover of the sea than murky inland waters. I took my PADI in the Caribbean.

I know it, because I spent a miserable week there early one February, demonstrating underwater tracking systems and ROVs to your MOD, and ARE.

[exMaggieDrum]

Originally Posted by Terra Nova

OK, then educate the interior designer to not build stuff in the way of accessing important systems. Not only do you need a way to open and close it, you must be able to inspect, service and maintain it.

The interior designer should be fired for getting priorities out of whack. It's great to have more internal storage, cute cubby-holes, and the like, but nothing, absolutely nothing, should prevent ready access to thru-hulls, hoses, batteries, and lots of other critical gear (such as engine zincs, etc. etc.). So don't paid heed to Terra Nova at your peril.

[indiana_ct]

It's all perfectly accessible with the engine cover off, like most of the engine. This is more belt and braces than 'only option'.

[Kokanee]

You can buy 12 volt actuated seacock valves, but they are not cheap.

Another option is to rig up an old throttle control cable to the valve handle. Even a kill switch cable may work if the valve is easy to turn.

[indiana_ct]

Originally Posted by Kokanee

You can buy 12 volt actuated seacock valves, but they are not cheap.

This idea already came to mind but I'd rather have something mechanical than electrical for all the reasons of problems occurring because it's not just when one thing that goes wrong, but 3 or 4 things at once.

[Panope]

I have a bilge pump thru hull that is slightly out of reach when a removable panel is in place. To make actuation instantaneous, I tied a lanyard thru a hole in the handle so that a tug opens the valve. I use the bilge pump handle (it is a manual pump) in a "pushing" motion to close the valve. It is normally closed (boat does not leak) so this operation only occurs to give the valve a little exercise or during the yearly bilge hose-out.

Steve

[JPA Cate]

How about drilling out the handle, and securing a loop to it that you could then access with a shortened gaff?

Ann

[Dody]

If you dismantle the handle to modify it anyway, why not just weld an extension onto it? The extension could be 90º or whatever angle to the handle and long enough so you are able to reach it, but of course shouldn't be in the way of any moving parts when open or closed.
In this case you wouldn't have to find your tool which is nearly certainly always misplaced in the worst possible moment, no need to fiddle around to attach it to the handle in heavy seas, no need to have little lines or cables rigged which can slip out of where they are meant to be and so on.

Good luck and Fair winds
Dody

[thinwater]

A commercial product:

Seacock Remote Operation Arm - TH Marine

Easy enough to duplicate.

[CarlF]

Geez Thinwater. That's way too easy. And it's not nearly expensive enough.

I looked it up, the OP can get the 18" version from Amazon for $14 and $7 shipping. He'll have it on Thursday.

Are you sure this company knows it's for a boat? Yes, it's only a stick and a little bit of bent stainless to hold the stick but that should be priced for at least $68.


Carl

[skipmac]

Originally Posted by CarlF

Geez Thinwater. That's way too easy. And it's not nearly expensive enough.

I looked it up, the OP can get the 18" version from Amazon for $14 and $7 shipping. He'll have it on Thursday.

Not in the UK she won't.

[jeepbluetj]

I like the concept - I've been thinking about using a throttle or choke cable for a few of mine to make them easier to get to.

But the pushrod idea looks simple. Easy to fab something like that up.

[HopCar]

This is the one I sell. It seems to work well. You drop it down over the handle and rotate the handle as far as you can then you put the slot over the handle and push it down the rest of the way. The image shows it with the slot in position.

Seacock Helper

Groco seacocks come with a square hole in the handle that is designed to accept a 3/8" ratchet or breaker bar.

Groco Full-Flow Flanged Ball-Type Seacocks FBV750-2000

[indiana_ct]

We are "cooking on gas" now with the responses - great ideas, thanks.

[Rustic Charm]

Indiana, just in case your or your designer havnt thought of it, I thought I might mention something that on most boats is pretty important.

Seacocks are generally considered one of those failure points on a boat and as such if your boat was under survey the inspector would expect to see a wooden plug at each sea cock in case of failure. In fact, when I had my insurance survey done, which I have to have done every three years as my boat is over twenty years old, the surveyor expected to see one on each seacock.

How are you going to get in and stem the flow of a water ingress if you can't even reach it?

I really think a design, any design, that does not have easy access to seacocks is not a good design.