Cockpit Drains

[Red Horse]

Hi folks
My Cross 38 has two cockpit drains that empty below the water line, with no seacocks. Not unusual for a boat built in 1968.
So the question is leave the drains as they are and add seacocks, or remove them plug the holes and have overboard drains direct to ocean from the cockpit floor. I have seen another Cross with the drains thru the sides of the cockpit and out the hull using a box section. The exit would be about two feet above the water line. My worry with this approach is if the cockpit was flooded would it put the drains below the water and sink the boat? Any suggestions?

Rich

[Wand]

Originally Posted by Red Horse

Hi folks
My Cross 38 has two cockpit drains that empty below the water line, with no seacocks. Not unusual for a boat built in 1968.
So the question is leave the drains as they are and add seacocks, or remove them plug the holes and have overboard drains direct to ocean from the cockpit floor. I have seen another Cross with the drains thru the sides of the cockpit and out the hull using a box section. The exit would be about two feet above the water line. My worry with this approach is if the cockpit was flooded would it put the drains below the water and sink the boat? Any suggestions?

Rich

If the hoses and clamps are kept in good order, there's no real reason to change. But most people these days will say you need a seacock on every thru hull. Bollocks I say if you have good maintenance and especially with cockpit drains not far below the water line. But on the other hand I guess it's easier to turn a cock than block the source of the ingress at sea. Re the final option, I really don't know why anyone would go to all that extra trouble to drain a cockpit.

[ATC]

My experience on sailboats is the drains from the cockpit cross below deck - meanig the scrupper drain on the port side will exit the hull on the stb'd side. Being so as when the vessel is heeled to one side, that scrupper drain would be below the water level, but the hull fitting would be elevated above the water level to prevent water from coming on board. But seeing that this question is for multi-hulls, I am interested myself.

[Astrid]

I should think that putting seacocks on the thru hull of the cockpit drains would create a choke point that might get clogged with debris causing it to back up or drain inefficiently.