cockpit drain arrangement.

[vasant]

Hi all and MErry Xmas.
On my old lady i noticed the last season water leaking into the bilge. After some research i noticed that the through hull of the cockpit drain is dripping slowly so need to be tackled now. The drain exit is only just above the waterline, that is when the boat is not moving there is no water ingress, only actually when motoring. Anyway i was a bit surprised to find that the pipes are actually brass. So the question here is wuold this be a good opportunity to replace besides the through hull also the pipe? Or are those old pipes better?

 

[vasant]

 

[lpdsn]

If it's just brass then there'll probably have been a bit of corrosion that will have weakened the pipe. My guess not much if the only time salt water gets in there is when you're underway.

The best forumite to ask is VyvCox who has a professional background in Metallurgy and has studied corrosion on boats.

I suspect that your leak could probably be solved by just tightening it up a bit, but examine things carefully for corrosion before getting the big spanners out. And you might be thankful to have had a few wooden bungs to hand if it all goes wrong.

 

[vasant]

Of course the activity will be run in the dry.
I just wonder if those pipes amd the threads are still sound.

 

[yoda]

Well, the leak is never going to get better. Tackle it now and replace the skin fitting at the same time with a decent Bronze one. If it were mine I would add a valve to the skin fitting and change to a reinforced flexible pipe to avoid any chance of stress fractures.
Yoda

 

[vasant]

agree.
Hovever the valve is maybe too much, its not accessible anyway.
But yes i consider to replace with new flexible pipe.

 

[Daydream believer]

Does your gas locker drain into the cockpit then out via the cockpit drains?
I ask because if you were to follow Yoda's advice above & fit valves you may inadvertently cause a gas build up. Similarly, if you fitted flexible pipes with a dip in them they could trap water & the gas would not drain away.

 

[vasant]

Hi , thanks for reply.
No, gas is not involved here.
In GR we eat only salad on board..... :encouragement:

 

[Daydream believer]

Hi , thanks for reply.
No, gas is not involved here.
In GR we eat only salad on board..... :encouragement:

Oh dear !! How awful-- Life can be a real bitch sometimes !!!

 

[MM5AHO]

That pipe pictured looks more like Copper to me than brass. Though the fitting to left might be brass.
That's quite a horizontal run for a cockpit drain pipe, where if you ship a green wave, you want the cockpit to drain quickly. And it appears to be parallel to the boats line as opposed to crossed over. Maybe designs have the drain in the port cockpit draining to sbd and vice versa. That means the water shipped aboard can drain out and not flow back in when boat on a heel. Changing to hose as someone suggested might solve more than one issue.?

 

[vasant]

Hi thanks for the ideas.
Meanwhile i dismantled the drain. For the skin fitting it was high time, there was little sikaflex (left) so clearly where the leak came from.
The pipe as such looks solid to me and is just the length needed. Actually it forms a 90 deg angle so one that goes straight down from the cockpit and then straigth to flush the water out. I am not sure if a rubber hose could be bend like this and also not sure what is more safe.
Honestly i didnt understand much the crossed pipes idea. In case the boat is heeled the water will lets say collect in the sbd side in the coskpit but cannot flush out as the port side will be in the air. It seems i got it wrong somehow....