One way locker drains?

  • Thread starter Thread starter catalac08
  • Start date Start date
C

catalac08

Guest
I have a couple of large lockers at the stern of my boat. One stores fenders and a spare 6kg gas cylinder and the other side stores the gas cylinder and gas valve etc. The steering quadrant is at one side and a steering arm is in the other. Both these lockers have a couple of drain holes just above the waterline.
I wish to replace the drains with some sort of cheap and cheerful fitting that will let out water but not let water in but I am having difficulty locating these.
Any ideas or suppliers?
 
Availability of suitable one-way valves will depend on the size of the holes. Of course, you could simply screw a rubber flap over the outside of the holes to prevent waves from pounding in, but it won't stop seepage. Another way is to get a sorbo rubber ball for each hole and drill through them. Thread a bungee through the ball and into the hole, anchoring it so that the ball is pulled up to the hole making a seal. A second anchor point can be provided to allow the ball to drop clear and let water flow out.

Rob.
 
Simple rubber flaps would probably be best as any "proper" one way valve would not allow leaking gas to drain as it currently will do, exhaust flaps would probably do the job nicely.
 
catalac08 said:
I have a couple of large lockers at the stern of my boat. One stores fenders and a spare 6kg gas cylinder and the other side stores the gas cylinder and gas valve etc. The steering quadrant is at one side and a steering arm is in the other. Both these lockers have a couple of drain holes just above the waterline.
I wish to replace the drains with some sort of cheap and cheerful fitting that will let out water but not let water in but I am having difficulty locating these.
Any ideas or suppliers?
Click to expand...

The requirement for drains in a gas locker is to let gas leakage out! Most non return valves
Need a force to open them and the trapped gas would not produce this force so the gas would
Build up in the locker. The most likely solution would be a valve with a floating element such
As a table tennis ball as suggested by others.when seas tried to enter the locker the ball would
Float up and seal the entry from the locker and when the seas were not present the ball would
Drop clear. Mind you a surveyor might not like this solution. :-)

Many older boats have the problem of flooding drains due to the low position of the lockers.One other solution is to fit bottle lockers for smaller 4.5 kg bottles at sufficient height for their overboard drains to be more effective.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top