Cockpit drain seacocks

[Dave, 397]

I just got done perusing Tim's woes of getting the new cockpit drain arrangement sorted out aboard GLISSANDO. Wow...what a workout!

My immediate question here...
My boat is a big mass of mess right now, and even if I could get to the seacock area to look it wouldn't do me much good as I not only to not have the new seacock in hand but have already done away with the original hull standpipes.

Anyway, I've tried to judge the misalignment by eye, and it looked like angled fittings would do. Reading Tim's narrative, I see that is not going to be an answer.

My first inclination is to section the lower part of the scupper into a friendlier installation angle and then have a friend of mine who is a very sharp non-ferrous welder TIG them back together. Oh my, but does he just love welding cast stuff, though. Might cost me a whole fifth, and he likes spendy booze! Ouch!

Second inclination which I immediately dismissed was to seek out some automotive radiator hoses with the right bends in them, chop out the desired part and go at it. I know better than this, so it is dismissed out of hand.

Last inclination, is to move the seacocks a little. This would be a real pain perhaps but might also be an answer. I even thought of fitting some serious riser blocks under the seacocks, doing massive 'glass addition, and installing my recessed thruhulls at an angle relative to the bottom as required, then fairing up. Naaaahhh. Maybe move the seacocks though.

I'm curious if Mr. Triton Guy has any ideas as to what could be done here, and also if there are any specific plans for how to cope with it on the Daysailor. Wait...that's a dumb question! He's building a new cockpit in the first place.

For that matter, what about moving the scuppers themselves a bit aft? Think that'd help?

I realize that the final answer is only going to happen with parts in hand, but I am trying to get a picture in my head of what I might be able to work out. I don't have room for the loops of hose, so I gotta make it go somehow.

Thanks,
Dave

[Tim]

Dave,

This is a case of your possibly benefiting from my own 20/20 hindsight.

Since you've done away with your engine, there should be plenty of room to move the seacocks forward and downward as necessary to allow mere mortals to get the hoses installed. Installing the seacocks was just about the first thing I did after completing the boat strip-out, demolition, recore, and that sort of stuff. The seacocks came before my initial engine installation. I don't think I had come up with the visual juxtaposition of engine/tranny vs. scupper seacocks.

In the original setup, as built by Pearson, the Atomic Bomb was located so far aft in the compartment that it would have been impossible to relocate the seacocks elsewhere, at least not without major difficulty. And of course the original openings in the hull were directly beneath the cockpit scuppers, since they used those tube thingies instead of a decent setup.

Let's travel back in time. Here's a photo of my empty engine compartment and space under the cockpit sometime in early 2000. Please see my notes on the photo.


If the seacocks are moved forward and/or downward in this manner, it doesn't matter at which angle they project. You don't need a huge amount of extra space (and length of hose) to make that awkward transition from the scupper fitting to the seacock. Even if my seacocks were moved, say, one seacock's width further inboard, or forward, from where they are now, I would be able to get straighter hose runs installed.

Here's another photo, this time from in the cockpit, looking through the cockpit hatch cutout before anything was installed.


If I were doing it again, I would dry fit everything and play around with locations. I would choose my scupper fittings and seacocks (armed with both 90-degree and straight tailpieces), and some lengths of hose, and play around with a variety of locations, taking into account whatever was necessary. Now that I know, I would carefully consider the relationship between engine location (or not, as the case may be), bulkheads, hoses, fittings...etc.

Note that I cannot use 90-degree tailpieces in my scupper seacocks because there is not enough clearance to twist these fittings into the threads with the seacocks installed. These angled tailpieces certainly would have made a difference in the overall execution, both start and finish. I would never install anything that couldn't be serviced through the finished access, but if I were doing it over I would probably take clearance for this sort of fitting into account, unless it wasn't applicable.

Phew. There's a start, anyway. How I would proceed is quite clear to me, now that I've spent so much time dangling upside down in the space. Systems come first. I did OK, all things considered, but, given the hindsight of 3 seasons' use and more fighting with stuff than I had hoped, I take away valuable lessons for "The Next Time".

Have you ever noticed how every boatyard seems to have one very slim, small person in their employ? Well, Tim's Backyard Boatyard has no such person--far from it, in fact. So access is even more important for me, and I look forward to the opportunity to try out, on another boat project one day, many of the things I have learned--and continue to learn. It's why I crave new projects, boats, and challenges.

The scuppers in the Daysailor will be configured completely differently, not to mention much further forward because of the size and shape of the cockpit. I anticipate no problems of this sort.