[Public-List] Cockpit and scupper drains

Mon Sep 21 14:12:47 PDT 2015

Stephen,

As you mentioned, the 1/2" thru-hulls are quite a piece of work.

"Whitby did a lot of things over the years to keep the cost of the Alberg
30 affordable. Perhaps the *worst thing was to make their own half-inch
through-hulls*. They took half of a pipe nipple and peened it over a fender
washer. While this seems like a mechanically sound construction at first, a
little corrosion can make this fall apart into the two pieces. Fortunately
my boat was on land when it did so. I put a wrench on the engine intake
valve and the pipe nipple pulled through the hull with no apparent effort.
I had been *that close* to sinking all season."

Was looking at #262 recently, thinking about thru-hulls, and noticing the
1/2" fresh water line that runs from the tank under the v-berth to the head
and the sink, and got to wondering.  Why do we have have three 1/2"
thru-hulls?   We have one for the engine and not two feet away, one for the
galley, and another that is closer to the engine raw water thru-hull than
the fresh water tank is to the galley.

Seems that we could eliminate two...in particular the one in the galley and
the head by extending a line from the engine raw water thru-hull to the
galley and the head.  That line could be flexible fiber/cord reinforced
plastic.  The long run of hose would be from the engine thru-hull to the
head.  That run could be inside a piece of schedule 40 PVC to protect the
hose from whatever might be under the port settee.

To date, since May 17th this year ;), I have closed all thru-hulls every
time I leave the boat.  I open each as needed.  When not needed all
thru-hulls are closed.  Would have to open the single thru-hull at the
engine anytime I wanted to use the head or the sea water galley pump.
Perhaps that is not too high a price to pay for eliminating two holes in
the boat.

Considering this as one of this winter's projects.

Thoughts ?

Jonathan.....owner newbie!

On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 12:27 PM, Stephen gwyn via Public-List <
public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:

>
> 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
>
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 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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-- 
Jonathan M Bresler
Alberg 30 #262
Annapolis/Eastport MD