seacocks (again)

[richardh10]

I'm going to change the seacocks while the boat is out of the water. However, in all the time I've had the boat, I've never closed the cockpit drain seacocks, and cannot imagine any time when I might. Why would they ever need to be closed?

If that is 2 less to replace, I have plenty of other things to spend the money on!

Any thoughts?

Cheers

 

[vyv_cox]

I guess it depends on the boat. My Sadler has no cocks on the cockpit drains and I certainly have never needed them. Whereas on my motorsailer I close them every time I use the boat to prevent the cockpit from flooding. Some boats need to have the cockpit drains closed off if the boat dried on its side, to prevent flooding when the tide returns.

If they are never used I would leave them where they are but check that the ball is still there and that it turns when you operate the handle. It's worth exercising them occasionally to keep the ball free of fouling.

 

[Stemar]

However, in all the time I've had the boat, I've never closed the cockpit drain seacocks, and cannot imagine any time when I might. Why would they ever need to be closed?

Any thoughts?
Cheers

You might be quite glad of a seacock if one of the pipes fails at the wrong time (Is there ever a right time?)

 

[Gnjoutside]

You might be quite glad of a seacock if one of the pipes fails at the wrong time (Is there ever a right time?)

But then a soft wood plug is cheaper....

Vyv is yours a 32?

 

[sailorman]

34

But then a soft wood plug is cheaper....

Vyv is yours a 32?

 

[vyv_cox]

Vyv is yours a 32?

 

[Robert Wilson]

The potential of a seacock being needed is in inverse proportion to it's accessibility.......................
My cockpit-drain 'cocks are way back behind the engine, where even attempting to use a woodedn plug in an emergency doesn't bare thinking about!
Just serviced mine this week - I sleep well again!
If a pipe could fail, it will. I'd rather have a seacock, even if it's a sod to reach.

 

[Jaguar 25]

Surely if you have sea cocks in the cockpit drain pipes you then have 4 pipes with 8 connections instead of 2 pipes and 4 connection points and therefore, more than double the potential for a failure.

 

[prv]

Surely if you have sea cocks in the cockpit drain pipes you then have 4 pipes with 8 connections instead of 2 pipes and 4 connection points and therefore, more than double the potential for a failure.

No - you don't have any flexible hose below the valve!

Ideally the valve part is seated directly on the hull, so there is nothing in between. Groco in the US, and Blakes in this county, make different styles of seacock that mount directly to the hull. In practice, a lot of "seacocks" are now assembled by screwing a ball valve onto the end of a skin fitting - it's not quite as robust, but it is a lot cheaper. So you have one joint that closing the valve can't seal - but that joint is two substantial pieces of bronze screwed tightly together, and unlikely to cause any trouble.

The only drains in which I would not want seacocks are ones made integral to the hull, either metal tubes welded into a metal hull (I've seen cockpits with a vertical tube at each corner, doubling as pillars supporting the structure) or fibreglass tubes firmly glassed into a GRP hull. Plus ideally they'd exit through the transom above the waterline.

Pete