Raw water strainer

[islandrunner70]

My Beneteau has a Volvo diesel model 2003. There is no raw water intake strainer. This is how the boat was designed and biult in 1993. I sail on Lake Erie. Is this a problem not having a strainer on the raw water inlet?

[HopCar]

Apparantly not since your boat is almost twenty years old.
I know many boats are made now without internal sea strainers but they have external strainers with fine holes in them. I'd be worried about sucking up a plastic bag and choking the cooling water to the engine without some sort of strainer.

[jackdale]

It should not be difficult to retrofit one. Consider mounting it above the waterline and with an anti-siphoning loop.

Plastic bags are not an issue. Sea weed, small fish, and algae are among the things I have cleaned out of a sea strainer.

[HopCar]

"Plastic bags are not an issue."
They would be if you didn't have an external strainer and motored near an urban area. The damn things get everywhere! They look like weird jellyfish in the water.

[bobconnie]

Yep Hop Car plastic is gonna kill us all someday !!

[Brazil]

Originally Posted by islandrunner70

My Beneteau has a Volvo diesel model 2003. There is no raw water intake strainer. This is how the boat was designed and biult in 1993. I sail on Lake Erie. Is this a problem not having a strainer on the raw water inlet?

Without a raw water strainer you end up changing impellers much more often. My previous boat did not had one and the impeller used to last less than 50 hs. Once I installed the strainer the impeller never Went bad again.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by HopCar

"Plastic bags are not an issue."
They would be if you didn't have an external strainer and motored near an urban area. The damn things get everywhere! They look like weird jellyfish in the water.

I have had them attach themselves to the raw water inlet and to a cutlass bearing. I doubt if they could get to a sea strainer.

[HopCar]

"I have had them attach themselves to the raw water inlet"
That didn't cause a problem?

"I doubt if they could get to a sea strainer. "
I don't see why not. But they don't have to get to the strainer to cause a problem. Just get one sucked over the raw water inlet and it can block the intake.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by HopCar

"I have had them attach themselves to the raw water inlet"
That didn't cause a problem?

"I doubt if they could get to a sea strainer. "
I don't see why not. But they don't have to get to the strainer to cause a problem. Just get one sucked over the raw water inlet and it can block the intake.

The engine overheat alarm went off. I shut down the engine, did some trouble shooting, and then noticed a bag come floating from under the hull. The suction had released the the bag. I have had a kelp leaf do the same thing.

The inlet aperture is small enough that I do not see a bag getting into the hose.

On a delivery from Maui this year I was concerned enough that we carried two spare impellers and regularly checked the sea strainer as we went through the Pacific gyre which has a lot a plastic particulate matter just below the surface. Fortunately that was not a problem.

[islandrunner70]

Thanks for all the great feedback. I should have mentioned that there is an external strainer. I was wondering if it is a good idea to have both.

Thanks.

[ranger58sb]

Depends. Having both internal and external strainers may affect your water pump's ability to draw in raw water fast enough to meet engine cooling requirements. Your engine specs will likely speak to minimum flow rate...

-Chris

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by jackdale

It should not be difficult to retrofit one. Consider mounting it above the waterline and with an anti-siphoning loop.

Ahhhh......no siphon breaks on the suction side