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View Poll Results: What Sinks Sailboats (wood excluded)– Survey
Hitting something or being hit - damaging the hull 13 25.49%
Failure in the hull/deck construction 1 1.96%
Leaking thruhulls 25 49.02%
Shaft log or packing failure, Loss of propeller shaft 12 23.53%
Loss of keel 4 7.84%
Bilge pump failure – batteries, wiring, plumbing or pump 20 39.22%
Rigging failure – chainplates, couplers, shrouds, stays, boom or mast 0 0%
Rudder failure 5 9.80%
Fire or Engine explosion 6 11.76%
Multiple Choice Poll. Voters: 51. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 27-03-2005, 06:39   #16
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After great thought, I have come to the conclusion that WATER is the cause of boat sinkings.

Jim
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Old 27-03-2005, 08:58   #17
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You’re half right Jim
Water on the outside floats the boat - it’s only water on the inside that sinks them.

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Old 27-03-2005, 20:17   #18
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seee i was right jt
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Old 03-04-2005, 21:09   #19
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lightning

when Lightning strikes a tree..the explosion and blast blowing away chuncks of the tree is boiling sap turning to steam inside the tree....ive had personal and closeup demonstration of this phenomonum.............The crazyest boat sinking ive seen was a boat setting in a boat yard on the hard..stored for the summer...in Fla. we get boats stored for the summer.....the cockpit drains are a great place for wasps and dirt daubers too build there nests...whith our hard rains the cockpit filled up and ran over the bridge deck into the cabin...filling the hull over the eng. thus floating all the oil out of the eng. and througout the interior..............we now when hauled out recommend screen wire taped over the thu hulls.....................
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Old 04-04-2005, 12:48   #20
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Flooded cockpits

It seems to me, with these posts, that cockpit drains are a huge problem!

The new designs with the openback cockpit is now becoming of great interest to me. I've actually been considering modifying my cokpit to open up out over the transom and now I think it's going to happen. If my drains were to get damaged or plugged It would be a major problem.

Thanks all for your participation! Keep'm coming..............................._/)
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Old 04-04-2005, 21:00   #21
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Drains

I am gonna change the drains on my boat to a rear exit and make them much bigger.
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Old 03-06-2005, 05:47   #22
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A sinking by rudder failure

http://www.hyc.ie/news/newsview.asp?newsid=285

If they were thinking, they probably could have saved the boat by putting a sail or canvas under the aft end and tied it up tight over the cockpit. But that's my opinion!
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Old 03-06-2005, 14:45   #23
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I think the sea cocks, we lost two in our marina due to the were open during the winter, water froze in the air cond. intake and failed the hose, when temps. rose, the pump drained the battey and they went down I always close all mine when I leave the boat, never can tell when a hose might fail
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Old 29-07-2005, 00:33   #24
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Always closing the sea cocks is good insurance and a great habit, but equally important is to perform a little regular maintenance to ensure that they seal when closed as well as they are not difficult to operate.

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Old 03-08-2005, 23:38   #25
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sea cocks fail- me- not...

The best idea I have heard as to keeping a boat from sinking via a bad sea cock is to re-plumb them in such a way so that there is one intake feeding a manifold, and one out take feeding a manifold, and a valve on each.

Sea water comes in at one point and leaves at one point.

From the manifolds piping feeds the head, AC and the galley…etc…

Every time you leave the boat the 2 valves get turned off. This ensures that the valves get exercised regularly and virtually guarantees that your boat won’t sink at a dock, on the hook or on a mooring when the boat sits empty.
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Old 04-08-2005, 18:17   #26
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Bob, this is called a "Sea Chest" and is often found on larger vessels. A similar way to do it, is to have one large skin fitting and large valve and then a series of valves, called a Mainfold, branching off from there. You can turn an individual circuit off if needed, or can turn the one main fitting off when leaving.
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Old 05-08-2005, 08:55   #27
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Although the thought of reducing the number of thru-hull fittings is very attractive (less holes in the bottom must be a good thing), I’m not certain that a manifold (or sea chest*) is necessarily a universal solution.

Manifolds don’t work well under (simultaneous) suction or high-pressure drainage - usually requiring that all but one valve be closed (at a given time).
They do work well for low-pressure drainage; but how many drains will you want (or be able) to route to a single thru-hull location?

On “Southbound” we tapped the R/O Watermaker reject-water discharge into the galley sink drain, which resulted in a faint sewage-like smell when the watermaker was running. A simple “Trap” (or valve) between the sink and the tap-in point (would prevent the smell, but) would have taken up too much real estate. The valve would also have prevented use of the Sink when making water.
The Watermaker’s Intake line was tapped into the Galley Sink Seawater Foot Pump supply, which worked well. Of course, we had to suspend seawater usage, when making water (to prevent “starving” the watermaker pump - a bad thing).

Here’s an example, that Groco calls a “Drain Manifold” (#D-M5-1500):
http://www.groco.net/05-Cat/05-CAT-GIFS/Page-53.jpg

* I believe that a “Sea Chest” is (more or less) a vertically oriented “Manifold” (horizontal orientation).

FWIW,
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Old 07-08-2005, 21:08   #28
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manifold ...

Gordo,

I agree.

What I had in mind was a horizontal sea chest, where the tube feeding the separate circuits is about 3 times larger in order to supply enough water for everything.

Another idea I liked; on a steel boat the owner installed 2 large diameter, vertical cockpit drain pipes and attached feeder valves near the bottom of the pipes, after the main shutoff valves. He had the depth sounder attached to a stainless rod and lowered it down the outtake pipe when underway. One advantage to this arrangement is that if he sucked up a big jelly fish, or a plastic bag, he could use something like the handle end of a boat hook as a plunger to clear the obstruction without having to leave the cockpit.

Bob…
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Old 08-08-2005, 09:20   #29
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Proper manifold sizing (doubling the diameter of a pipe quadruples it’s capacity) will certainly improve the odds of trouble-free operation (simultaneous circuit use); but I am also concerned about back-flow.
On a high suction system, it may be possible for one circuit to draw back the prime of another (which is not operating).

I’m exhibiting my density again. I’m not visualizing the arrangement you describe, nor it’s function.
”... 2 large diameter, vertical cockpit drain pipes and attached feeder valves near the bottom of the pipes, after the main shutoff valves ...”

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Old 08-08-2005, 16:13   #30
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cockpit drain pipes as vertical manifolds...

Gordy,

Think of 2 oversized cockpit drain pipes going straight down through the bottom of the boat. On an aft cockpit design it would have to be the forward drains. Just up from the bottom is the main shutoff valve, and just above that are the various feeder valves feeding the heads, galley, engine intake…etc…

In order to avoid a suction problem it would have to be a big pipe.

The guy who configured his boat this way says he turns the 2 big valves off whenever he leaves his boat and virtually eliminates the possibility of the boat sinking.

And with the pipes easily accessible from above an obstruction could be easily removed, I would think, with the handle of a long boat hook, which doubles as a food gathering device.

Here's a crude drawing;



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