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Old 10-02-2020, 16:10   #1
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Seacock for cockpit drains?

I am replacing the drain hose from my cockpit drains. I've also taken out my through hulls.

There were no seacocks installed for these originally. I understand that ABYC standards now require installation of seacocks.

I am unclear why this makes sense to retrofit. This is the one seacock I would not close. I wouldn't close it when I'm away because of rain welling, I wouldn't close it while sailing.

Why would I retrofit a seacock?
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Old 10-02-2020, 16:31   #2
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

Tmacmi, if you ever have a hose from the cockpit drain fail or a clamp fail the seacock could save your boat. By the way I first started sailing on the Severn River too and kept my first boat at a private dock on Middle River.
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Old 10-02-2020, 17:30   #3
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

Agreed. On my boat the seacocks for the cockpit drains are three inches in diameter. That's a lot of water if a hose breaks, and it's a tight squeeze under the cockpit to hammer in a wooden bung. I sleep better at night knowing I can easily close the seacock, but to each their own I guess.
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Old 10-02-2020, 17:48   #4
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

Two things you have to worry about with cockpit drains, freezes and offshore sailing.

In winters cockpit drains get frozen over and the cockpit fills with snow/slush/water then goes into the cabin depending on the boat design. Not good but no drain valve needed if high above waterline.
If low on the water line, the weight in the cockpit filled with water could drop the transom down sinking the thruhull into the water. If the hose freezes and brakes, not good!

Off shore in a rough sea, water could splash up into the thruhull and into the cockpit. But should drain right back out. Not sure a valve would be any good there either, unless the boat were taking on water (sinking) and you need to keep the deck drains from back filling.

It all depends on the design of the boat and the placement of the thruhull along with how high the cockpit is above the waterline.

And access to valves would be another question. What good are they if you can’t reach them easily. BTW - Normally, “Seacocks” are not required above the waterline. Just regular valves.
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Old 10-02-2020, 19:17   #5
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

In all things sailing, the answer is "It Depends."

If you have hoses that drain your cockpit, I agree with the ABYC that a valve is a good idea in the unlikely event that a hose fails. That is the purpose for seacocks in general. Hoses are always a weak link.

On the other hand, on my boat, the cockpit drains are actually solid fiberglass pipe, and are structural members supporting and stiffening the cockpit. Requiring seacocks there seems to be enforcing rules at the expense of common sense.
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Old 10-02-2020, 20:51   #6
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

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Originally Posted by Mediator View Post
Agreed. On my boat the seacocks for the cockpit drains are three inches in diameter. That's a lot of water if a hose breaks, and it's a tight squeeze under the cockpit to hammer in a wooden bung. I sleep better at night knowing I can easily close the seacock, but to each their own I guess.
same here. two of them. I cant imagine either failing catastrophically...if they did though a hell of a lot of water would get into the boat before I could squeeze into the space to close the seacock. I can imagine the amount of water that would get in if there were no seacock to close before I could get the water stopped.
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Old 11-02-2020, 05:20   #7
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

Section H-27 of the American Boat & Yacht Council’s Standards & Technical Information Reports for Small Craft states that:
“... all piping, tubing, or hose lines penetrating the hull below the maximum heeled waterline, under all normal conditions of trim and heel, shall be equipped with a seacock to stop the admission of water in the event of failure of pipes, tubing, or hose...”
EXCEPT: “... through hulls below the boats static floating position waterline that use reinforced piping or hose ...”

ABYC “H-27" SEACOCKS, THRU-HULL FITTINGS, AND DRAIN PLUGS
https://cdn.ymaws.com/abycinc.org/re...I_(032113).pdf

http://www.nmma.org/assets/cabinets/...cks%202011.pdf
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Old 11-02-2020, 07:08   #8
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

I think it's a good idea for any thru hull that's below the waterline to have a seacock.

As mentioned above, it's a whole lot easier to just turn a handle than to find a bung and a hammer and bang it in, or find a screwdriver and clamp and try and re-clamp a hose, when water is shooting into you boat.
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Old 11-02-2020, 08:24   #9
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

Who and how many skippers have ever had a cockpit drain hose fail?
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Old 11-02-2020, 08:40   #10
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

A suitable size bung should be tied to every seacock. Then there's Stay-Afloat for those leaks that a bung won't stop.
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Old 11-02-2020, 08:59   #11
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

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Originally Posted by Doug Rutherford View Post
Who and how many skippers have ever had a cockpit drain hose fail?
In 2017 i was sailing along the Florida east coast, weather was salty and i was healed over hard even with a double reef. With 25 kts of wind on my Morgan classic 41 and single handed, I was at the helm for 4 hours straight. As I entered Biscayne Bay, i set the autohelm and went down below to find water sloshing in the saloon! Called BoatUS, who responded within minutes and pumped me out (so happy to have insurance ) we could not find out where the water had come in, and once we were pumped out, iI was no longer taking on water. I was totally confused to also find out that both of my bilge pumps were working, but not the bilge alarm. Motored over to Hurricane Harbour and started the search. I found that the 1 inch hose for the cockpit drain had come off, can't figure out why, but I double clamped it. When I returned to my dock I immediately installed seacocks... but
As previously stated, getting to the valves would be hard, but could save your boat
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Old 11-02-2020, 09:17   #12
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

Someone asked who had had cockpit drains fail. I just replaced all the hoses because they had become brittle. Some had developed cracks because of the brittleness. I had the same thing happen recently with a deck drain. A small crack in the hose was leaking. I didn't have enough replacement hose or time so I made a jury rigged solution which was almost a disaster. Put a 2 gal. bucket to catch the water, but didn't get back to the boat as soon as I expected due to cold rainy wx that went on for days. By the time I could get back, the bucket was full, so much so that the boat's rocking would cause some to slosh out. One more rain and i would have had water everywhere. Fortunately I got back to the boat and made the repair with only a little water to clean up inside a small cabinet. I was very fortunate because the next day it started raining again and for a day or two thereafter. I think drain hoses are perhaps the weakest point on any boat.
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Old 11-02-2020, 09:24   #13
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

A good point about hose failures. I expect skippers should make their routine maintenance checks more detailed for all through-hull fittings and attachments. This is common sense but often overlooked due to laziness or overconfidence. .
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Old 11-02-2020, 09:37   #14
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

You would retro fit one so that if a hose ruptures, a clamp fails etc, you can shut it off. Just a ball valve ought to do it.
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Old 11-02-2020, 09:41   #15
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Re: Seacock for cockpit drains?

IDK about laziness and overconfidence. On my boat access is often a bigger problem than what needs doing. There were specific issues noted on the survey, but other things like the drain hoses keep popping up and are more urgent than the specific survey discrepancies.



In my case, there were no maintenance records so I'm having to establish a baseline for all the systems. I have created a simple maintenance log organized by system. It is stubby pencil and simple to keep up.
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