[Public-List] Cockpit and scupper drains

[Stephen gwyn via Public-List]

Hi,

The guys at Whitby Boat Works were real cheapskates when
it came to plumbing. Everybody has probably read about their
homemade through-hulls:
http://www.alberg30.org/maintenance/Plumbing/WhitbyThroughHull.html
but the cockpit/scupper drains plumbing is almost as bad.

On Saturday, I started poking around the through-hulls for the
cockpit and scupper drains my boat. As those of you with liner
boats know, the scupper drain hoses meet the cockpit drains
just above the seacocks in a t-fitting. When I took on of the
two hose clamps off one of the scupper drains, I found that
the vinyl bilge flex hose had nasty crack. This was because
the instead of a proper barb, it was squeezed over a section
only 3/4 of an inch long, so the second hose clamp wasn't really
squeezing the hose on to the pipe, it was just squeezing the hose,
bending it over the end of the pipe.

That (presumably original) bilge flex hose obviously had to go,
so I bought some better stuff. It refused to go onto the t-fitting,
because it was 1 1/4 inch hose (1.250 inches) whereas the fitting
was the outside of 1-inch nominal pipe (1.315 inches). The top
end of the bilge flex hose, where it meets the scupper drain was
held on with (presumably original) hose clamp. When I went to
remove it, it crumbled to rust in my hand. The bottom
of that scupper drain is just a 1-inch nominal pipe fitting,
so my new, better hose won't go over that either.

I can't believe the setup has kept my boat afloat for the last 43 years.
At the earliest opportunity, I will be replacing all that mess
with better hoses and suitable bronze fittings with real barbs,
not hose wodged over the outside of a pipe nipple.

SG

-- 
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Stephen Gwyn                       | Tel: 1-250-363-3136
Canadian Astronomical Data Centre  | Fax: 1-250-363-0045
Herzberg Institute of Astrophysics | Cell: 1-250-885-6969
5071 West Saanich Road             | E-mail: Stephen.Gwyn at nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
Victoria, BC, V9E 2E7, Canada      | http://astrowww.phys.uvic.ca/~gwyn/
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