Winter drain fastener on seacock

Will Angus · Post by **Will Angus** » Nov 15th, '07, 09:13

I appreciate all the threads on seacocks and they have been very helpful. I haven?t been able to find one concerning the proper use of the drain fastener on the seacock. I am planning on leaving the boat in the water this winter and want to be sure to drain residual water form the seacock.

Do you just loosen the fastener and let a bit of water drain then close it, or do you leave it open all winter? Are the other things I should consider? Thanks!
________
Justin Bieber Fans

Steve Laume · Post by **Steve Laume** » Nov 15th, '07, 16:38

Interesting question. I hope to hear what others have been doing. Here is CT I have stayed in the last two winters. We have a good tidal flow and there has only been a bit of ice around dock lines and such on the coldest of days. No freezing of the water surface around the boat. This is with no bubblers or other devices. I have shut my seacocks and left them undrained. I figure that it the surface water temps are not cold enough to freeze then the temperatures deeper in the water will keep the seacocks from freezing. There is great conduction in bronze. No problems thus far but it would be great to hear what others are doing. I definitely wouldn't leave the plugs out if you do decide to drain. There are all sorts of scenarios for problems with that. It certainly couldn't hurt to drain the barrels. How cold does it ever get in VA? You should have no worries, Steve.

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Nov 15th, '07, 23:13

I lean towards what Steve says. I think if it was my boat in the water in Virginia, I would just close the seacocks and be done with it. Excluding, of course, the cockpit drains' seacocks.

If the boat is in fresh- or brackish water, I would close the seacocks, then disconnect the hoses, drain the water out of the hoses, then re-connect the hoses. If it were my boat, before I did that, I would have the engine suck some non-tox antifreeze into the raw water side of the cooling/exhaust system.

Dean

Steve Laume · Post by **Steve Laume** » Nov 16th, '07, 08:46

Yes I do winterize the engine by pumping anti-freeze through the raw water side. I usually wait until just before we get a really cold spell sometime in January. There is still lots of great weather for sailing before it gets cold enough to bother anything. There are lobster guys in our marina for the winter that never take their boats out of comission. They run engine room heaters and are always ready to go. I worry about a power failure of any sort and am too far away to check on the boat daily so I am not comfortable with that arrangement. I need to get down and check on things in the next day or two, Steve.

Tom M · Post by **Tom M** » Nov 16th, '07, 22:00

This will be my first winter with my CD25.
I have a 6HP Nissan I intend to leave in, I think i canjust
run it thru the winter?If I have a Deicer?
Close all thru Hull fittings,Head?Sink?
can I put non toxic antifreez in my fresh water sys?
I will leave cockpit drains open.
any suggestions for cabin heater?
Tom M

barfwinkle · Post by **barfwinkle** » Nov 16th, '07, 23:32

What are the little bleed screws on the seacocks for?

Fair Winds

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Nov 17th, '07, 07:56

Tom M wrote:Close all thru Hull fittings,Head?Sink?
can I put non toxic antifreez in my fresh water sys?
I will leave cockpit drains open. any suggestions for cabin heater? Tom M

In the water or out for the winter?

If you're out, open the thru hull fittings so any water there drains out.

Yes... winterize your water system by pouring non-tox into the tank and pumping until it comes out in the sink. (It doesn't take much.)

If the boat is properly winterized, you won't need a heater. If you're plannin on being on board, search the archives for cabin heaters.

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Nov 17th, '07, 08:02

Maybe this is dead obvious, but to follow up on what Neil just wrote: before you you pour in the non-tox, first pump the water tank and the water lines as dry as you can.

Dean

Neil Gordon · Post by **Neil Gordon** » Nov 17th, '07, 08:07

Dean Abramson wrote:Maybe this is dead obvious, but to follow up on what Neil just wrote: before you you pour in the non-tox, first pump the water tank and the water lines as dry as you can.

Dean

Good to mention, Dean.

By the way, don't forget the bilge. Get it as dry as you can. I always pour some non-tox in, so that whatever rain and/or snow melt that works its way in doesn't freeze there.

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Nov 17th, '07, 08:17

You guys have gotten me curious about the "bleed screws" or "drain plugs" or whatever they are.

Now, my boat is not here now, so I cannot look at it. I think I may have a vague memory of such screws, but even if I do, I may be thinking of another boat. I just pulled out my CD31 manual, and in the section on seacocks, there is no mention of such a screw.

Where exactly is the screw? I have a very faint memory of maybe someone telling me those are grease fittings, but that really does not make sense to me, as that would seem way too localized to properly gease the seacock.

My boat winters on the hard, and all of the seacocks are left open. I am wondering if the screws are a way to drain the seacock of some small amounts of water which somehow would not escape just by opening the cocks. This, I would think, would be for boats out of the water, not in.

Curious in Maine,

Dean

Steve Laume · Post by **Steve Laume** » Nov 17th, '07, 09:05

Somebody might need to give Spartan a call and find out what they were thinking. I suppose if I were allowing my boat to freeze into solid ice I might be concerned about draining the barrels of the seacocks. I think I would have much greater concerns but that is beside the point here. If I recall correctly those plugs are in the middle of the seacock. Even if you did go to the trouble of opening them, they would only drain half the water in the barrel of the seacock.

Before I add any anti freeze to my water tanks I pump them out as much as I can and then vacuum out the rest of the water with a little wet and dry vacuum. I do the same thing to remove the anti freeze in the spring time.

I might be sailing tomorrow, Steve.

barfwinkle · Post by **barfwinkle** » Nov 17th, '07, 09:40

for some reason (mostly likely Spartan's web master) I cant copy a pic of the bleed screw. Follow the link below, then scroll down on the right side until you see seacock and seacock maintenance.

The pic of the seacocks clearly shows the screw I am talking about.

http://www.spartanmarine.com/catalog.html

Happy Thanksgiving

Dean Abramson · Post by **Dean Abramson** » Nov 17th, '07, 10:36

Hey, thanks for the link.

Hmmm, yes. Those do look familiar. Now I am going to change my mind and surmise that they are for when the boat is left in the water, but, as Steve says, wouldn't that only take care of half the water in the barrel? Maybe the theory is that if the barrel is only half full, there is plenty of freeze-expansion room. Looking at this now, it would seem like it would be superfluous to use the drain screws on a boat out of the water and with the cocks open; that water would drain out anyway. I have always left my boat out of the water, seacocks open, and never used the screws. With no apparent downside.

If those ARE for in-water use, then I repeat that I would also drain the hoses above the seacocks. In the case of the engine water intake, once you have used the engine and that hose to suck in the non-tox, that hose would be full of non-tox and all set. The cockpit drain hoses (with the cocks open) will probably be okay as long as the water the boat is floating in does not freeze.

As for cabin heaters: for me personally, I find the idea of a live electric heater on my boat, while I am not there, to be way more terrifying than a haulout charge. If I had such a heater for when I am there, I would not just turn it off when I leave, but also unplug it from the shore power.

Dean

Oswego John · Post by **Oswego John** » Nov 17th, '07, 12:32

The screws in the sides of seacock bodies are freeze-up screws.

If the boat is kept in the water during a freezing season, the valves have winter drain screws, (some have threaded caps), on the sides of the bodies to allow any trapped water to exit when the seacock is closed.

If any standing water freezes, it could distort the valve body and possibly crack the casting.

As Dean and others mentioned, anything else done in addition to prevent damage from freezing is a plus.

O J

M. R. Bober · Post by **M. R. Bober** » Nov 18th, '07, 20:12

Oswego John wrote:The screws in the sides of seacock bodies are freeze-up screws.

If the boat is kept in the water during a freezing season, the valves have winter drain screws, (some have threaded caps), on the sides of the bodies to allow any trapped water to exit when the seacock is closed.

If any standing water freezes, it could distort the valve body and possibly crack the casting.

As Dean and others mentioned, anything else done in addition to prevent damage from freezing is a plus.

O J

If there is water in the seacock and it gets cold enough, the possibilty of damaging the unit is real. It only takes a few minutes to remove the "bleeding screws." I would strongly suggest that if you need to winterize you should properly prep the seacocks that are closed.

If you winter on the hard, I suggest opening all of the cock before haulout. As the boat is moved from the dock to the poppets, the lines have a better chance to drain.

RESPITE is on the hard and I haven't posted my--nearly--annual bit of melancholy, but I'm thinking it.

As always every best wish to my online shipmates.

Mitchell Bober
Moving from Sunny Annapolis to even sunnier Lancaster Virginia

The Cape Dory Board

Winter drain fastener on seacock

Winter drain fastener on seacock

While we are on this subject?

Non-tox

Re: Non-tox

Those bleed screws

Bleed Screw

Seacock Screws

I'm with O.J.