Beware healthy looking hoses

[Warby12]

The other day I was in our cockpit locker and I saw something odd. Our engine exhaust hose exits the boat here and looked to me to be in excellent condition.

As I was sitting there I saw these sparkles of light playing on the two hose clips holding the hose on. Amazed, I suspected fairies but then maybe an electrical issue as there were two sets of wires resting lightly against the hose clips. Remove the wires and they sparkles remained. Static electricity? It was actually a bit creepy.

Well you know what? As I reached forward to grab the hose to pull myself in for a closer look it came off in my hand at the skin fitting. Virtually turned to powder! The sparkling light was the sun reflecting off the water outside and up through the skin fitting and then through a crack in the hose. I had previously noticed a small amount of salt water here but didn't twig.

Eventually while motoring this hose would have broken fully off flooding the boat with exhaust gas and water. As it's a centre cockpit, when heeled the exhaust outlet is under water, so even better, we might have collected an enormous amount of water. So beware nice looking hoses. Age gets them all.

I had already replaced all of the other valves, hoses, clips but not this one as it was inaccessible and looked good (and maybe I knew it would cost a lot to replace)

[Wotname]

In the nick of time.
How old was the hose?
Any other loose wiring waiting to be problem as well?

[Moody46CC]

You are right--this is a case where looks are not everything. I try to check each of my hoses by giving it a good squeeze at the connecting points. At commissioning and de-commissioning times, I'll run my hands along the length of each as best I can and eyeball each as best as possible. Sanitation hoses and the galley sink hose are the hardest to follow since they run under the sole, but given that my heads are on the fresh water system and I use a holding tank, a rupture will not sink the boat, although the consequences of a rupture might make one wish the boat had sunk. The engine-genset intake/exhaust hoses and the two from my cockpit drains (which are the largest hoses) give me the greatest worry.

[Warby12]

Not sure of the age of the hose. Boat is 40 this year. It was re-engined at some stage with a Perkins 4108 (now of course that's an old engine). Spooky thing was the hose looked terrific. Not only had the rubber powdered but the stainless core wire was gone.

No more lose wires. I'm rewiring the boat and they were just new and not attached yet.