Blocked drain by Helm in cockpit - what to do??????

I have one of those hand pump sink unblocker things, you know the ones that look like an overgrown bicycle pump. As long as the pipe to the obstruction is full of water so that you can transmit the "pulses" all the way down I have yet to find something I couldn't shift. You just need to make sure any branches, such as overflows etc are sealed otherwise the pressure goes to them instead (and can shoot foul water at you). Best £5 I ever spent on Ebay.
 
Buy a set of Draper glass fibre wire pullers. You can get a pack of 10 No. 300mm ones which screw together to give 3.00m for about £ 12-00 one of the attachments is a little wheel which is less likely to go through the hose side. Another attachment is a hook which might work to pull back rubbish
They also do a set of 1 metre rods of same diameter (about 5mm)
it is amazing how useful they are on a boat for threading & pulling wires or draw cords etc
An electrical or tool shop will have them, or buy online
There are better quality makes with more attachments but more expensive
 
I use a length of flexible rigging wire. Fray the end out. Push the wire into the drain and slowly rotate as it comes to an obstruction keep rotating. Witdraw the wire and there should be debris stuck in the wire ends. This will give evidence of what the blockage is. Keep repeating this process until you gradually dig through the blockage. If necessary re fray the ends and even bend them back to form small hooks. Its worked several times on internal scuppers with right angled bends and gate valves. If you have gate valves its possible for the gate to fall off the spindle. It can sometimes be re engaged with a bit of jiggling.
 
ghostlymoron said:
If you have gate valves, best ditch them at earliest opportunity and fit ball valves. Then you will have positive indication of valve position.
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Or just remove the valves altogether. They introduce two additional points of failure (the valve itself and a connection) and you want them open whenever the boat is outdoors anyway.
 
Triassic said:
I have one of those hand pump sink unblocker things, you know the ones that look like an overgrown bicycle pump. As long as the pipe to the obstruction is full of water so that you can transmit the "pulses" all the way down I have yet to find something I couldn't shift. You just need to make sure any branches, such as overflows etc are sealed otherwise the pressure goes to them instead (and can shoot foul water at you). Best £5 I ever spent on Ebay.
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Beware of using positive pressure like this. It may dislodge whatever is the problem or it may compact it further. More significantly, if it can't move the blockage it will seek out any other weaknesses in the pipework and you may end up with a split pipe or a joint coming apart. As I suggested above, much safer to use negative pressure.
 
I was going to query the previous advice not to do it this way as they didn't explain why pressure is such an issue. My observations are firstly that we are not talking a lot of pressure here, it's only a small hand pump and it seems to work best if you use short in and out movements so the water gets sucked and pushed back and forth and it is this movement that dislodges the obstruction, not massive pressure. Secondly, if you do have a weakness in the system likely to fail under such gentle pressure then it's probably best to find it now rather than when it really matters in a gale miles offshore......
 
The reason you have a seacock fitted is for just this sort of problem. Sould a hose fail you have some means of stemming the flood. Close the seacock and remove the hose to clear any blockage within the hose. I get the impression (maybe wrongly) that the OP doesn't know where the seacock is located and to me that is possibly an indication of poor maintenance.
 
KAM said:
I use a length of flexible rigging wire. Fray the end out. Push the wire into the drain and slowly rotate as it comes to an obstruction keep rotating. Witdraw the wire and there should be debris stuck in the wire ends. This will give evidence of what the blockage is. Keep repeating this process until you gradually dig through the blockage. If necessary re fray the ends and even bend them back to form small hooks. Its worked several times on internal scuppers with right angled bends and gate valves. If you have gate valves its possible for the gate to fall off the spindle. It can sometimes be re engaged with a bit of jiggling.
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That's the way I would go about it.
 
If it's a big problem why mess about ......just dry out alongside and do the job properly.
 
itchenseadog said:
The reason you have a seacock fitted is for just this sort of problem. Sould a hose fail you have some means of stemming the flood. Close the seacock and remove the hose to clear any blockage within the hose. I get the impression (maybe wrongly) that the OP doesn't know where the seacock is located and to me that is possibly an indication of poor maintenance.
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I quite agree.
The OP has written that "to dismantle the drain with the thought of saltwater, is not an option for me" (he implies this is because he lacks the expertise/confidence to do it). But even failing that, he should be able to tell us if there is a seacock. If he doesn't know, then he should find out. Then we can take him through it from there.

It's all rather reminiscent of posters who want a magic potion to clean their outboard's float bowl but are deaf to exhortations to undo two screws and take the damn thing off.
 
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