Dryer Hose????

[John D]

Mucking around in my engine compartment, I'v noticed what appears to be several pieces of "dryer hose" laying in the area. It is a little smaller in diameter, but appears to be a wire reinforced hose that is not connected at either end. Any idea why this would be there? Isn't it going to rust out? It's a mystery to me, and I'm open to suggestions. Thanks

John
S/V Mariah
Cape Dory Intrepid 9M



john_dupras@hotmail.com

[D. Stump, Hanalei]

John,

You are probably looking at some lengths of vent hose that would have been connected to your deck mounted vents. They probably fell off. I'd get new, and reattach it properly to the deck vents.

Dave Stump
Captain Commanding
s/v Hanalei CD-30

[Jerry J Commisso]

Hi John,
On all the Cape Dory's I have seen with inboards those hoses are connected to deck vents located behind the cockpit. This allows lots of fresh air into the engine compartment. There is normally one on each side. Mine is a 1980 and I have no rust problem. Possibly a previous owner did away with the vents. I think they really help.

Good luck,
Jerry CD30C CHELSEA ROSE

Mucking around in my engine compartment, I'v noticed what appears to be several pieces of "dryer hose" laying in the area. It is a little smaller in diameter, but appears to be a wire reinforced hose that is not connected at either end. Any idea why this would be there? Isn't it going to rust out? It's a mystery to me, and I'm open to suggestions. Thanks

John
S/V Mariah
Cape Dory Intrepid 9M

liasboat@aol.com

[John M]

On our boat (cd28), the vent hose was also disconnected. At the local hardware/plumbing supply store I found a PVC fitting (shower drain? I think) that matched the diameter of the vent hose. I made some modifications to the PVC fitting to suit the new application, and now have a solid attachment point for the vent hose, below deck.

Mucking around in my engine compartment, I'v noticed what appears to be several pieces of "dryer hose" laying in the area. It is a little smaller in diameter, but appears to be a wire reinforced hose that is not connected at either end. Any idea why this would be there? Isn't it going to rust out? It's a mystery to me, and I'm open to suggestions. Thanks

John
S/V Mariah
Cape Dory Intrepid 9M

johnmartin55@hotmail.com

[Mark Yashinsky]

They do seem to connect to the vents on the stern and run forward to the engine area, but why??? The diesel engine (2GM, 2 cylinder) draws so little air and those hoses tend to be run thru the stern locker and both cockpit lockers. The makeup of the hose tends to be somewhat fragile and lots of stuff (fenders, extra fuel containers, boarding ladders, mops, buckets, rope, etc, etc, etc get thrown in these lockers and dont coexist very well w/ the vents. There are many large spots above and around the bulkheads for air to flow, so trying to run the vents w/o the hose this year. Also, what about water getting into the vents, where will it drain to??? The vents hose usually bend up and over the top of the bulkhead between the stern and the port and starboard cockpit lockers, a nice, non draining dip in the hose.

[Jerry J Commisso]

I think the idea is to help vent fuel or exhaust fumes. On my boat the hoses do not run through the lazarette. They run down behind the bulkhead that seperates the engine area from the lazarette. It can't be damaged by gear falling onto it. They run down hill the whole way. Any rain water just goes into the bilge.

Jerry

They do seem to connect to the vents on the stern and run forward to the engine area, but why??? The diesel engine (2GM, 2 cylinder) draws so little air and those hoses tend to be run thru the stern locker and both cockpit lockers. The makeup of the hose tends to be somewhat fragile and lots of stuff (fenders, extra fuel containers, boarding ladders, mops, buckets, rope, etc, etc, etc get thrown in these lockers and dont coexist very well w/ the vents. There are many large spots above and around the bulkheads for air to flow, so trying to run the vents w/o the hose this year. Also, what about water getting into the vents, where will it drain to??? The vents hose usually bend up and over the top of the bulkhead between the stern and the port and starboard cockpit lockers, a nice, non draining dip in the hose.

liasboat@aol.com

[Tom]

Mucking around in my engine compartment, I'v noticed what appears to be several pieces of "dryer hose" laying in the area. It is a little smaller in diameter, but appears to be a wire reinforced hose that is not connected at either end. Any idea why this would be there? Isn't it going to rust out? It's a mystery to me, and I'm open to suggestions. Thanks

John
S/V Mariah
Cape Dory Intrepid 9M

John, As others have said these are vent hoses for the bilge. In addition to bringing fresh air for the engine intake they help cool the transmission which generates heat and as you know is stuck way down low in the bilge. They also vent air in the event you ever get an exhaust leak and unknowlingly pump carbon monoxide into the bilge. I face one vent forward as an intake and one aft as an exhaust to encourage circulation. In really heavy weather or when you're not running the engine the vents snap out and are replaced with deck plates that are water tight. If it's raining and you're running the engine, you make the best choice that you can. You can put dorades between the vent and deck if you're worried about it, but you don't take much water through the vents normally so few people worry about it. The hoses should be connected though.



TomCambria@mindspring.com

[Walt Bilofsky]

If your boat has a gasoline engine, the <a href ="http://www.uscgboating.org/reg/reg_fr_e ... asp">Coast Guard requires it to have a "natural ventilation system"</a>. Manufacturers generally build it into both gas and diesel boats, probably because (a) a good air supply is even more important for a diesel, and (b) the boat will be legal for both gas and diesel engines.

A natural ventilation system consists of:

A supply opening or duct from the atmosphere (located on the exterior surface of the boat) or from a ventilated compartment or from a compartment that is open to the atmosphere; and
An exhaust opening into another ventilated compartment or an exhaust duct to the atmosphere.
Each exhaust opening or exhaust duct must originate in the lower one-third of the compartment. Each supply opening or supply duct and each exhaust opening or duct in a compartment must be above the normal accumulation of bilge water.


Does this description sound like what we've been discussing?




bilofsky@toolworks.com