Can anyone help me with my Gas Locker conundrum?
Carpe Diem is a Franchini 47 and was built of fibreglass in 1991. Her present (original) gas locker is midships in the Starboard side
deck. However the drain for the locker goes internally to a through-hull below the waterline. Obviously this is not ideal, as any leaking gas cannot drain away! The gas cooker is close by so the pipe runs within the yacht are short!
Presently the locker does fill with
water on a hard sail - not ideal I know but we only store things that don’t mind the occasional submersion!
I want to improve things and make the gas
installation safe, so, as I see it, I have 2 alternatives:
1. Reroute the present locker drain to a new above
water line through-hull with a clamshell fitting to drain the excess gas. This will be fine till we have a hard sail when the
hull fitting may occasionally be submerged! But I guess that can happen wherever the
hull fitting is? But the clamshell solution may reduce or even prevent water getting into the locker when sailing hard!
2. Move the gas locker to the large lazaret locker near the stern. This is a considerable amount of
work but may be the best solution! It has its own clamshell drain so no worries there! But I will loose an appreciable amount of storage!
Your thoughts would be much appreciated.
Jack