Good Old Boats. Is Yours Seaworthy?

[thomm225]

So, I was in a rather lively discussion recently as to the seaworthiness of my good old boat.

Lots of good points were brought up, but there's one I'd like to mention again and that is very old hoses connected to open seacocks.

I've seen one boat sink at the dock due to this problem of an old hose leaking or breaking connected to an open seacock. Luckily for the owner, it was at a shallow dock and the boat only went down a couple feet

On another occasion, a guy at my dock that had just recently purchased his boat was seen in the bay with his boat very low in the water.

Another guy from our dock, went over to help and ended up having to board, go below and shut off a seacock because the hose connected to it was leaking like crazy

The owner knew nothing about seacocks or boats. He was just super excited just to be sailing but wasn't very well prepared to own a boat

At this time, my seacocks are all closed or plugged which eliminates the problem of old rotten hoses connected to open seacocks, and the cockpit drains have new hoses

[James S]

Well it is a boat.. and anyplace there is a hole in it below the waterline has the potential to sink it..
I'm anal about closing my seacocks when not in use and thats after having replaced all the hoses (and pretty much everything else..haha)
Its one of the first pieces of advice i give new (to them) boat owners... find all the below waterline openings and inspect them..
I eliminated all but 2 when doing my refit.. by eliminate i mean removing the seacock, fairing them out and glassing them in...