Remote seacock

[PabloPicasso]

Marine surveyor recomended modifying seacock access.

Its an MD2010 with the seacock on the saildrive

I can just about reach the seacock bent over double in the engine bay, at full stretch with my forearm squeezed against some mounted plastic components.

My first thought was to cut an access panel, but I can't see a practical place to do this.

Next choice is remote operation
Perhaps a low tech approach
A long thin pole (like the shaft of a golf club) with a hinged spigot that would slip over the seacock handle

Perhaps permanently fixed to the handle and linked to a lever high up in the engine bay where its easy to reach. But it will be very difficult to attach given the poor access.


What f&ck#r designed this installation and thought it was a good idea!!

 

[Stemar]

12v solenoid valve linked to the ignition switch?

 

[pete]

12v solenoid valve linked to the ignition switch?

What could possibly go wrong?

 

[Tranona]

The saildrive seacock is extremely difficult to operate as the handle is very small unlike a conventional ballvalve. TBH most people never close it so difficult access is not a big issue. After all the boat has survived well over 20 years without any owner feeling the need to change access.

However if you are of a nervous disposition you could block off this inlet and install a conventional seacock in a more accessible location - if you can find one!

 

[RivalRedwing]

Marine surveyor recomended modifying seacock access.

Its an MD2010 with the seacock on the saildrive

I can just about reach the seacock bent over double in the engine bay, at full stretch with my forearm squeezed against some mounted plastic components.

My first thought was to cut an access panel, but I can't see a practical place to do this.

Next choice is remote operation
Perhaps a low tech approach
A long thin pole (like the shaft of a golf club) with a hinged spigot that would slip over the seacock handle

Perhaps permanently fixed to the handle and linked to a lever high up in the engine bay where its easy to reach. But it will be very difficult to attach given the poor access.


What f&ck#r designed this installation and thought it was a good idea!!

I've no sense of the detail of your fitting, but something like a plumbers stopcock tool? e.g.
https://www.screwfix.com/p/rothenberger-universal-stopcock-key-920mm/71652

 

[Tranona]

The valve is the little red wing nut type on the top of the saildrive housing (follow the water hose). fybmarine.shop/volvo-penta-md2010-md2020-md2030-and-md2040-service-parts-and-spares

Imagine that buried under the cockpit floor. As the OP says - not a good installation but that is the price for cramming an engine into the confined space of a small yacht.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

On some coded yachts, the raw water inlet seacock, with a long handle, is remotely closed with a wire run through pulleys to a convenient location outside the engine bay, where a loop in the wire or a T bar has been fitted to aid pulling and closing the seacock. The risk is fire and damage to the hose and subsequent flooding. Not all coded vessels have a remote closing arrangement for similar positioned sea cocks, so I think it is down to individual surveyors opinions. However, fire resistant hoses are now required in engine bays, so that may have superseded the remote closing option.

 

[PabloPicasso]

Yes, a rod or wire attached to the seacock lever makes sense.

Difficult to permanently attach it though, as access is nigh on impossible.

But a long thin handle with a hook on the end to push or pull with might be the simplest aanswer.

A stick with a bolt screwed in at 90 degrees near the end perhaps.

I'll try is and see....

 

[Fr J Hackett]

TBH it sounds like a surveyor needing to find something to put in a report.

 

[johnalison]

I think it is Pablo's choice what he does. My saildrive seacock is just about reachable past the engine but is really only properly got at through the aft cabin. As suggested, most of us don't close it except occasionally, so it doesn't really matter, so long as you can actually close it.

 

[Moodysailor]

I was a marine engineer for many years, worked for a VP dealer for a chunk of that time. We saw many saildrives where access was limited had the seacock removed and blanked off, and a through-hull seacock fitted in a more accessible place - not a particularly difficult job, but it does of course involve drilling a hole in the hull!

I remember one boat brand who, when they switched the moulds from shaft to S/D, still fitted and plumbed the through-hull seacock and blanked off the S/D seaccock, even though the access was good. Someone in the design/engineering team apparently was concerned with growth in the S/D causing a blockage - each to their own, though it's not an issue for (m)any....

 

[penberth3]

Marine surveyor recomended modifying seacock access.

......Perhaps permanently fixed to the handle and linked to a lever high up in the engine bay where its easy to reach. But it will be very difficult to attach given the poor access.

Extension spindles are common in all sorts of applications. Is this the sort of thing that would do the job? Not difficult to fabricate something yourself.

 

[PabloPicasso]

I was a marine engineer for many years, worked for a VP dealer for a chunk of that time. We saw many saildrives where access was limited had the seacock removed and blanked off, and a through-hull seacock fitted in a more accessible place - not a particularly difficult job, but it does of course involve drilling a hole in the hull!

I remember one boat brand who, when they switched the moulds from shaft to S/D, still fitted and plumbed the through-hull seacock and blanked off the S/D seaccock, even though the access was good. Someone in the design/engineering team apparently was concerned with growth in the S/D causing a blockage - each to their own, though it's not an issue for (m)any....

It was an issue on my last boat. Bkanked off SD and fitted a thru hull at the front of the engine bay.

Made it very easy.

 

[PabloPicasso]

Extension spindles are common in all sorts of applications. Is this the sort of thing that would do the job? Not difficult to fabricate something yourself.

View attachment 192034

Yes, that'd be a good option. It would have to stay low down though so it was below the waterline.

I was considering a simple hinged handle extension. Perhaps like a tiller extension on a dinghy?