This bulletin board, hosted by the CDSOA, Inc., is the on-line meeting place for all Cape Dory owners and groups. We welcome everyone's questions, answers and comments about Cape Dory sailboat
tartansailor wrote:Actually I was thinking of connecting the 2 cockpit drains to a bilge pump to remove that which will not drain out the deck level horizontal 2" hole I plan to drill behind the tiller. Bilge pump water would lead to the motor well.
Any red flags there?
Dick,
So if you take green water into the cockpit, it drains into the cockpit drains and the 2" hole. That makes you dependent upon the bilge pump for 2/3 of the water you take on board. If the bilge pump fails, then what? (It's not just about an inch or so of rain water.)
The thing is the way it was set up. The drain does not work. If you take the hose off the thue hull ,water comes in. So how could it drain? You cant drain a sink with the hole on the bottom of a boat . If the boat is moving it would work. I plan on hooking the hose to a 3 gallon jug. All the boats near me have a drain above the water line not below. If there is water presure trying to push in on a drain it cant work.
crazywilbur wrote:If you take the hose off the thue hull ,water comes in. So how could it drain? ... If there is water presure trying to push in on a drain it cant work.
The pressure of the water will fill the drain hose up to the waterline (i.e., the level of the ocean). If you pour water down the drain, the water in the hose is higher than the ocean and so there's more pressure in the hose pushing down than there is ocean pushing up. The water in the hose goes down while the water in the ocean goes up (just a little) until the two are equal again.
If you take the hose off the sea cock, there's nothing pushing down and only ocean pushing up. Water will flow in until the sea level inside and outside the boat is the same (or the boat sinks, whichever comes first).
crazywilbur wrote:The thing is the way it was set up. The drain does not work. If you take the hose off the thue hull ,water comes in. So how could it drain? You cant drain a sink with the hole on the bottom of a boat . If the boat is moving it would work. I plan on hooking the hose to a 3 gallon jug. All the boats near me have a drain above the water line not below. If there is water presure trying to push in on a drain it cant work.
My CD25 is set up the same way. It does work but there is always water in the drain hoses up to the waterline. Yes, if you take the hose off the seacock water comes, but as long as the hose is connected and the other end is higher than the water it works. I too was suspicious of this arrangement when I first purchased my boat but as long as the hoses, clamps, and valves are in good condition no worries
If the bottom of the sink is above the water level, the drain water will always drop down to the level of the water outside the boat. Google "water level" to better understand this fundamental concept. However, there are situations which will inhibit this drain:
1. the boat is heeled over so the bottom of the sink is at or even below the level of the outside water
2. the hose is stopped up
3. the seacock is closed.
