creek crawlers lamentable ignorance

Seakindly

Seakindly

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Just finished refurbing raw-water inlet. Nice old Stuart bronze fitting with cage. But having moved to drying mud berth -where the boat (a Rival 32 with a stubby keel) squats nicely in the mud - I got to wondering (as you do wedged into the innards) -why the heck doesn't the inlet get plugged with a sod-of-mud every tide? It didn't happen after I arrived in the Autumn -but now, upon launching and looking forward to the season - how likely is it to happen? Am I going to have to check every blinking time I start the donk? First-time on a creek berth so any mud-dwellers experience welcome.
 
Am I going to have to check every blinking time I start the donk? First-time on a creek berth so any mud-dwellers experience welcome.

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well... most owners i think you will find check the water from the exhaust on each start up, it becomes a habit, a good one at that...
 
No guarantees, but over here where the situation you describe is not uncommon, we dont worry. The suction of the circ pump seems to get the gunge round the engine and out the exhaust, though I suppose it depends on how tenacious your mud is.

Ours was still on my hull after crossing Biscay to Spain!
 
Re: Creek crawler\'s dilemma

Consider fitting an appropriate alarm; if I attempt to start the engine with the seacock closed I'm deafened!
 
After recomendations on this forum a few years ago several boats at our club including mine have been fitted with flow switches.

http://uk.farnell.com/jsp/search/browse....switch&Ntx=

mine is (order code CRY DOM fs15) 15mm pipe there is also a 22mm one

It is connected to a simple buzzer or light through a relay as through memory these switches make on water flow.
Pete
 
Remember that for the first few seconds the exhaust will be chucking water that was already in there, so you need to check when the motors been running for a minute or so!
If you start mine with a bit much throttle, it shoves the lot out, then no water for 20seconds as you reduce to tickover, then it settles down.
Depends on your silencers etc.
An alarm is worthwhile.
I was going for a thermal switch on the first wet section of exhaust, 'good idea, waiting to happen No 23'.
 
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..........-why the heck doesn't the inlet get plugged with a sod-of-mud every tide?...........

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I'm kept a boat for years in a muddy creek along with hundreds of others. The answer is that what you fear just doesn't happen. When the tide comes in, the top inch or two of mud seems to kind of emulsify, and I dare say that also happens in the inlet pipe. However I do always shut the seacock when I leave the boat, but not everybody does that either.
 
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It is connected to a simple buzzer or light through a relay as through memory these switches make on water flow.
Pete

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There's a much better circuit layout here.
 
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Am I going to have to check every blinking time I start the donk? First-time on a creek berth so any mud-dwellers experience welcome.

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You should check that water is flowing out of the exhaust every time you start her up, mud, or no mud. It's no big deal to have a look over the side, easier than changing an impellor, and may save your engine one day.

The other thing I might do until I was confident that I wasnt getting plugged with mud is to have a look in the filter and make sure water flowed in briefly.

Having said that, if you only open the cock when you are off the bottom, the mud shouldnt be able to get in.

But check exhaust flow every time!!
 
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