storage under floorboards

[joks]

Hi all,
how do you all protect your seavalves from being knocked over by items stored under the floor boards?

Background: I need to provision food for 8 people for at least a month to cross the 4000nm from Panama to Marquesas on a 46’ catamaran. If we can find room (and weight!) on the boat it would be great to also provision for the months following the passage, since things are so much cheaper/available here.

To store the weight as low and central as possible, I’m looking to put food in closed plastic boxes under the floorboards in the hulls. So far so good.

But in anticipation of heavy seas, I see how the boxes will move and risk to hit the seavalves and potentially damaging them.

So the question is: if you store anything in spaces with seavalves, what do you do to keep the valves “collision-free”?

[s/v Jedi]

i bet there’s a lot of ways but my first thought is to epoxy some protection blocks into the bilge around the seacock to protect it

[psk125]

Not familiar with those seacocks. Are they sufficiently robust for a trip to the Marquesas?

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, joks.

[LittleWing77]

Originally Posted by psk125

Not familiar with those seacocks. Are they sufficiently robust for a trip to the Marquesas?

That was very tactfully expressed, psk.

Those are probably the least-robust seacocks I've ever seen...

LW77

[joks]

Hi Jedi and LW77,
thanks for your consideration of the seacocks.

No need to be overly polite. If you know they have specific weaknesses or have references for their crappyness, please just give me the straight dope.

I believe the black 90’ degree valve with red and blue handle to be made of polypropolene reinforced fibreglass by Randex.fr, sold eg here:
https://www.leesan.com/uploaded_file...0valves-15.pdf

If I were to worry, it would probably be more about the actual through-hull fitting (but you can’t see that in the photo) and not the ball
valve. But again, let me know what you know!

[JPA Cate]

Sorry, joks,

But I think you need to imagine how you would stop a leak there if one developed. My guess is that you will choose to pack food somewhere it cannot get flooded, and that you have access to stop a flood.

On our mono, we found some under floorboard stowage was dry, and some got wet, so if you can imagine the storage place wet, be sure to package it all so that it cannot get wet, as well as not moving around very much. Never put aluminum cans where sea water can get at them. They will pit in 2 weeks after contact, and their contents leak out. It can make a nasty, sticky mess, and hard to clean underway.

Ann

[joks]

Sorry for my wrong mention of Jedi, who did not comment on the seacock.
Thanks for your proposal!
(I don’t see any option to edit my post upon realization of the mistake).

[psk125]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Sorry, joks,

But I think you need to imagine how you would stop a leak there if one developed. My guess is that you will choose to pack food somewhere it cannot get flooded, and that you have access to stop a flood.

Ann

Is there a wooden plug for that seacock- just in case? Perhaps the container is hiding it.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

That was very tactfully expressed, psk.

Those are probably the least-robust seacocks I've ever seen...

LW77

The right answer may be "you can't." There are certain spaces that are just not designed for storage. Also watch for spaces with exposed electrical contacts (for example, a relay not inside an enclosure--to common) and wire that could be pulled loose (support them better and relocate as needed).


Propane lockers, fuel tank compartments, engine rooms, furnace areas, rudder compartments, and electrical compartments; these are zero storage areas. They are just not storage areas. This is one of those.

[joks]

Originally Posted by thinwater

The right answer may be "you can't." There are certain spaces that are just not designed for storage. Also watch for spaces with exposed electrical contacts (for example, a relay not inside an enclosure--to common) and wire that could be pulled loose (support them better and relocate as needed).


Propane lockers, fuel tank compartments, engine rooms, furnace areas, rudder compartments, and electrical compartments; these are zero storage areas. They are just not storage areas. This is one of those.

hey Thinwater, Im reaching the same conclusion. It’s not worth it to build protecting retaining walls around the seacocks. I have plenty of other rooms under the floorboards without any sensitive installations. Thanks

[joks]

Originally Posted by psk125

Is there a wooden plug for that seacock- just in case? Perhaps the container is hiding it.

Yes there is, but its stored centrally together with a variety of other sizes and a rubber mallet.

[joks]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Sorry, joks,

But I think you need to imagine how you would stop a leak there if one developed. My guess is that you will choose to pack food somewhere it cannot get flooded, and that you have access to stop a flood.

On our mono, we found some under floorboard stowage was dry, and some got wet, so if you can imagine the storage place wet, be sure to package it all so that it cannot get wet, as well as not moving around very much. Never put aluminum cans where sea water can get at them. They will pit in 2 weeks after contact, and their contents leak out. It can make a nasty, sticky mess, and hard to clean underway.

Ann

Thanks for the advice!

[joks]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

That was very tactfully expressed, psk.

Those are probably the least-robust seacocks I've ever seen...

LW77

Hi LW77
thanks for your consideration of the seacocks.

No need to be overly polite. If you know they have specific weaknesses or have references for their crappyness, please just give me the straight dope.

I believe the black 90’ degree valve (with red and blue handle in the photo) to be made of polypropolene reinforced fibreglass by Randex.fr.

If I were to worry, it would probably be more about the actual through-hull (that you can’t see in the photo) and not the ball valve.

[redneckrob]

Originally Posted by LittleWing77

That was very tactfully expressed, psk.

Those are probably the least-robust seacocks I've ever seen...

LW77

Those are the same Marelon seacock and valve setup installed in almost every one if the tens of thousands of French sailboats made in the last decade or more. I know Marelon vs bronze is right up there with "the best anchor" and "monos vs cats", but suffice it to say that if even a fraction of a percent of those were not "robust" enough we would have seen hundreds of these boats sunk by seacock failure. That's not something I'm aware of and it isn't reported as that common here, are we all missing something?