sink drain cd 25

[crazywilbur]

The drain in my sink goe,s down to the bottom of the hull. under water line. Cant beleve this, it should be above water line. How did they think this drain could work? Any body have this drain hook up?

[Jim Davis]

By going below the water line you can get a shorter hose, more important is it goes down, and not parallel to the water, or level. If the hose was parallel to the water it would drain poorly on one tack and not at all on the other.

[Neil Gordon]

There are holes below the waterline that let water in and holes that let water out. How the holes know the difference is a mystery to me.

[Russell]

The drain in my sink goe,s down to the bottom of the hull. under water line. Cant beleve this, it should be above water line. How did they think this drain could work? Any body have this drain hook up?

Why do you think a sink drain on a small boat should be above the waterline? That is not practical. Even on my CD36, it is below the waterline, and to change it to above the water it would render it useless. You can manage an above the waterline install if you do a sump for the sink and a pump, but that complicates things and increases power usage.

[Neil Gordon]

As has been pointed out, the best drainage is from the sink straight down thorugh the bottom of the boat. The shortest hose with the fewest bends will drain the best.

The only really important part of the sink/hose/hole system is the sea cock that holds the ocean out in case the rest of the system fails. If you have a good sea cock, in good condition (lots of archives about that) you don't need to worry about the sink draining to below the waterline.

[Carl Thunberg]

the sink drain and port-side cockpit drain were tied into the same seacock. Is yours the same configuration? It's very tight quarters in there with a lot of fittings to accommodate both drains. If it's the same as mine was, the old ball-valve was 3/4-inch diameter which constricted the flow and that was the ultimate cause of the extremely slow drainage. I changed the seacock to an 1-1/4 Conbroco Apollo bronze marine ball valve seacock. It improved things greatly, but I never was completely satisfied with the sink drainage.

[Troy Scott]

Nobody has asked: Does the sink drain go straight to a thru-hull without a valve? Indignation would be a somewhat appropriate response to such a discovery. But if there is a decent seacock on this drain, this is a perfectly normal installation.

[Troy Scott]

Neil,

As I understand it, it's good if the holes that let water OUT are a little larger than the ones that let water IN. It's safer that way. Now, about which holes are which: we should probably have little labels..... a-HA!, a new niche-business for someone!

[tartansailor]

For all the dish washing we do; which is very little; as disposable plastic is our norm; we plan to plug all through hulls and catch the gray water in a bucket for a toss.

The cockpit drain will be aft the tiller, down into the ob motor well.

Would anyone care to point out any down sides to this plan?

Dick

[Jim Davis]

The cockpit slopes down a bit toward the cabin. You will have to use long almost horizontal hoses and 90 degree bends at the scuppers. This is a sure fire way to have clogged cockpit drains. The clog easy enough with the more or less straight drop. Crud will collect in the hose because there will be minimal flushing action. We have a couple old "Sailmasters" with what you are describing in our marina and they seem to spend too much time pumping the cockpit and clearing the cockpit drains.

As to a catch basin for the gray water, why?

[Neil Gordon]

For all the dish washing we do; which is very little; as disposable plastic is our norm; we plan to plug all through hulls and catch the gray water in a bucket for a toss.

I use real dishes and pots and pans on board but still don't use much water in washing. I leave the sea cock for the sink closed. When I wash/rinse, water accumulates in the sink. When I'm done, I "flush" the sink by opening the sea cock and letting the water drain. Then I close the sea cock. Essentially, it's only open for the few seconds while I'm in contact with the handle.

[tartansailor]

Jim,
Thanks for your insight.
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?

The sink drain water would go into a 2 gal. pail, and periodically dumped over board.

That way I would have no through hull fittings.

Neil,
A bottle of sippin hooch says you are still using squares.
Common, fess up!

Dick

[Jim Davis]

Dick

Other than complexifying a simple system, nope. The drain in the back of the cockpit seems to me a reasonable back up/overflow, but I personally would leave the scuppers alone. As to the gray water?????????

[tartansailor]

Will rethink this some more.

Dick

[Troy Scott]

Dick,

I believe a following sea would come right on up into the cockpit if you try to drain directly to the motor well. Also, the forward end of the cockpit is probably lower than the rudder post end.

Through hulls and seacocks aren't bad at all if done right and maintained. One owner modification I've observed in a few smaller Cape Dorys is to reroute the cockpit drain hoses so the port drain empties through the starboard seacock and vice-versa. It is said that this will reduce cockpit flooding from the sea in extreme conditions. I never tried it.

If you have the old gate valves on those drains, you should swap them out for flanged seacocks. But in any case you should probably keep the drains.