Skin fitting levers

[MapisM]

I guess that if you have seacocks for the bilge skin fittings you might sink a little slower! That's if you could get to them to close them (on my boat you'd have no chance of doing this if taking on water) and they haven't seized from lack of use.

Fwiw, all above w/l valves are reasonably reachable in my boat, though some would be a bit harder than others.
And your point ref. being potentially seized by the time you need them is a good one, because I'm very skeptic that anyone with such setup checks all those valves regularly.
TBH, I wouldn't rate them as essential. More like a nice to have, in the hope of never having to use them.
I only questioned jfm comment because he seemed to say that they are plain wrong, and if so I was interested to hear why.

 

[Portofino]

As Porto has said above, if you have seacocks on the bilge skin fittings then there's the risk of shutting them and not remembering to open them again. Now that could cause a boat to sink that would otherwise stay afloat.
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That’s not quite what I said
I meant if you are in the “close all cocks “when leaving the boat unattended camp , there’s an accidental chance of shutting the bilge out skin fittings irrespective of there WL relationship.
And you mean now forgetting to open .

That’s why rightly or wrongly I leave all my seacocks open in the season .
They do get excerise - which come to think of it is actually more important , as you may need to move one in anger one day , than wether they are open or closed

 

[petem]

That’s not quite what I said
I meant if you are in the “close all cocks “when leaving the boat unattended camp , there’s an accidental chance of shutting the bilge out skin fittings irrespective of there WL relationship.
And you mean now forgetting to open .

That’s why rightly or wrongly I leave all my seacocks open in the season .
They do get excerise - which come to think of it is actually more important , as you may need to move one in anger one day , than wether they are open or closed

I stand corrected, but my point remains that the bilge out skin fittings could be closed in error.

 

[Portofino]

@PeteM - agree

Returning to the Op ,s Q
1- should you in terms of good seamanship following the book allways go into the ER every morning any how to check the basics like oil level etc —- ?
Thus opening up the saloon floor ?

2- Any mileage in fitting Boden cables like Morse controls , with a close and open remotely? Sort of toggles ones pulled t,other goes in type of thing .

 

[BruceK]

I guess that if you have seacocks for the bilge skin fittings you might sink a little slower! That's if you could get to them to close them (on my boat you'd have no chance of doing this if taking on water) and they haven't seized from lack of use.

As Porto has said above, if you have seacocks on the bilge skin fittings then there's the risk of shutting them and not remembering to open them again. Now that could cause a boat to sink that would otherwise stay afloat.

I suppose the optimum solution would be non return valves. I dunno if my boat has these.
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Sinking a little slower in a worst case scenario is in my book a good thing. It may just buy me time for the RNLI to get there with a pump, or to give us less time in the water in a disaster. I really cant understand how anyone could consider having holes anywhere in their hull right up to the point where water is going to come over the top, and not have a means of closing those holes should they need to do so. It beggars belief tbh.

 

[penberth3]

Something I learnt about my increasingly stiff seacocks last week is that the WD40 I have been spraying up the inlets to free them has actually been causing the stiffness.

Apparently it reacts with and swells the (delrin?).

PTFE spray is the suggestion...

Not sure about that, PTFE can build up and cause stiffness.