Changing to Blakes for Inlet Stopcock?

[mattonthesea]

It's also handy when running the engine with the boat ashore. Open the seacock, take off the filter lid and let a hose pour water into the filter. The engine draws only the water it needs and any surplus flows down through the seacock onto the ground.

and thanks @Poignard - that was going to be my next question

 

[prv]

Looks like I need one of these DZR Ball Valve, Skin Fitting & Hose Connector Assembly 3/4" - Marine Scene Would it need a wooden backing plate like Blakes and Forespar Marelon?

Yes - though just to be clear, what they have there is a collection of parts normally sold separately, not a single item. The price looks high to me compared to buying them separately, but I admit that the last time I bought skin fittings and DZR ball valves was before "we" voted to tank the economy, so maybe I'm out of date.

Skin fittings like this are conventionally fitted without any backing pad, though it certainly wouldn't hurt if you wanted to add one. One thing I would recommend is to cut down the length of the skin fitting to the minimum necessary, so that when it's all assembled there's only a couple of turns of thread exposed. They're sold full-length to go through thick, possibly wooden, hulls, and if you don't trim them down you're just adding leverage for any possible damage - and in any case it's untidy . A hacksaw will go through it no trouble at all. If you need to set the direction the valve handle faces, you can add a back-nut which allows you to do everything up tightly after backing off the valve slightly to the preferred position.

Pete

 

[ghostlymoron]

I disagree with the contributer who said that responses should only deal with the question(s) asked. I often find these diversions are often most interesting. I don't enjoy bad tempered exchanges though.