Drain plugs in rear deck scuppers?

[DennisG01]

Believe me, I've looked. The existing scupper is 1 5 inch unit with a flange and a barb that goes into the hose, the part outside the transom is part of it, it does not come off. So to replace with the Seaworthy makes no sense, it won't work. You need the scupper3 link and then their overall length is about 1.5 inches so the hose has to be clamped inside of the transom.

Please read the lengthy message #31 in this thread, I went through all of this.

OK, now the link works - for some reason it didn't, before. I was still the under the impression that you had external scupper valves, not internal like I see now. So... you're saying the external head of the SS scupper tube (the "mushroom") is larger in OD than the SeaWorthy (SW) is in ID? Assuming yes... it's probably awful darn close, right? I'm sure the ID of the SW is still larger than the "hole" in the mushroom head, right? Here's a quick workaround and super simple... get the adhesive-backed SW. Stick it on. At this point, it's only going to stick to the mushroom head. Now, get some white Life Seal and backfill the "gap" between the SW and the hull. That will be MORE than adequate to keep it attached and, if you find the SW doesn't work, you're only removing caulking. If you want to go a little "stickier" use Life Caulk, instead.

HOWEVER... thinking through this SW thing a little better - they work via gravity, right? Now, maybe I'm only thinking in "theory" here, but... your transom is not vertical (at least I don't think it is... most are tilted back at about 15*)... plus, with a couple guys in the back of the boat it's going to be tilted evern further... wouldn't the SW "door" swing open under gravity? If you were backing down under power, it would probably close - but just drifting... I'm not sure? I suspect a similar thing would happen with the swing valve, except that because it's confined inside a tube the water may be channeled towards it and push it closed.

All that said... I think if it was me, I would use the ping-pong balls. They work via floatation, not gravity. I would start by using double-side aadhesive foam (google for 3M VHB) to see if I was happy. Then I could make it more secure. It would certainly be much easier to clear a potential clog than having to get at that swing valve and unscrew the access port on top.

FYI, there are some easy tricks to make increasing an existing hole larger (your "no pilot hole" comment)... IF you get to that point, that is.

 

[luckydude]

Been looking some more. The PVC swing valves are a little funky, they are hinged with rubber, the rubber has to flex to open/close.
I don't trust that so I found some brass ones here:

Swing Check Valve | 1-1/2 in. NPT x NPT | Brass | 200 PSI

Buy 1-1/2 in. NPT Swing Check Valves at QRFS! Prevent backflow contamination in water-based/fire protection systems. 200 PSI. Expert support, fast delivery!

www.qrfs.com

and I think those plus this:

1-1/2" Close Schedule 80 CPVC Nipple 9215-017

Buy 9215-017 1-1/2" Schedule 80 CPVC Nipple at PVC Fittings Online and receive huge savings on all Schedule 80 CPVC, Schedule 80 PVC and Schedule 40 PVC fittings

www.pvcfittingsonline.com

will give me the smallest setup possible. I'll figure out how far I can screw in those nipples, how much I need to clamp the hose to them, and I'll cut off any excess.

I want it small as possible just to keep things neat.

 

[glacierbaze]

The nipples fit inside both the valve bodies, and the hoses, so they will not be seen, only the valve will be visible. No need to cut them for appearance sake, screw them tight in the valve, and leave plenty to double clamp the hose.
I wouldn't be using a brass valve to carry salt water.

 

[luckydude]

The nipples fit inside both the valve bodies, and the hoses, so they will not be seen, only the valve will be visible. No need to cut them for appearance sake, screw them tight in the valve, and leave plenty to double clamp the hose.
I wouldn't be using a brass valve to carry salt water.

I know that brass isn't great. My guess is I have 5 years of fishing left, 10 if I'm lucky. I think the brass will be good for the first 5 years.
I want the brass because it is a hinged cover, it swings on pins. Which means it swings open easily and swings closed easily and I want both of those. I looked into stainless, holy crap expensive. PVC is not hinged, it is rubber flaps, no thanks. So I'm not sure I can do better than brass.

 

[glacierbaze]

Yeah, I looked at bronze, ridiculously expensive.

 

[doug228]

I dont love the heavy bronze or brass valve hanging inline on that hose.

TH marine has these. No experience with them but i had considered them.

Inline Scupper Check Valves - 1 1/2" - T-H Marine Supplies

Inline Scupper Valve / Check Valve A great solution to provide a scupper check valve in the drain line. Allows use of standard thru-hull fittings in the cockpit and on the hull exterior. Prevents Backwash Chemical Resistant Materials Thermo-Plastic Flapper Three sizes available for marine...

thmarinesupplies.com

 

[wrxhoon]

Have you thought of using these?

Dri-Dek ® The Official Site

Dri-Dek is a flexible self-draining modular surface for Wet Floors, Boats, Kennels, Bars, Trucks, Gyms, Home & Patio and Anti-Fatigue Matting.

www.dri-dek.com

You only need a few tiles and they are cheap, Amazon sell them.

 

[luckydude]

Have you thought of using these?

Dri-Dek ® The Official Site

Dri-Dek is a flexible self-draining modular surface for Wet Floors, Boats, Kennels, Bars, Trucks, Gyms, Home & Patio and Anti-Fatigue Matting.

www.dri-dek.com

You only need a few tiles and they are cheap, Amazon sell them.

Well that's a thought as well. Right now I've been putting down moving blankets to try and protect the deck from crab pots, it only sort of works.

 

[tish]

One note to add on the ping pong ball style scupper valve: I find mine to be surprisingly loud. If I'm out on a drift (for example mooching for salmon here in Puget Sound) and the engines are off it's just me, the wind, my thoughts, and a regular "click CLICK.... click CLICK" of the ping pong balls. For boats where you sleep on the boat I could see this becoming a little maddening a la dripping faucet.

Also the style I have found sits fairly "proud" on the outside of the hull so keep that in mind e.g. on my boat I need to keep an eye on them whenever using the sling launch because otherwise they will get crunched/torn off the boat.

 

[Mustang65fbk]

One note to add on the ping pong ball style scupper valve: I find mine to be surprisingly loud. If I'm out on a drift (for example mooching for salmon here in Puget Sound) and the engines are off it's just me, the wind, my thoughts, and a regular "click CLICK.... click CLICK" of the ping pong balls. For boats where you sleep on the boat I could see this becoming a little maddening a la dripping faucet.

Also the style I have found sits fairly "proud" on the outside of the hull so keep that in mind e.g. on my boat I need to keep an eye on them whenever using the sling launch because otherwise they will get crunched/torn off the boat.

That's one of the things that I like about the Seaworthy Innovations brand of scuppers that I linked to earlier. They sit essentially flush, are made of stainless steel and to where you don't have to rely on the ping pong balls for draining and/or keeping the water out.

Amazon.com : Seaworthy Innovations 316 Stainless Steel Boat Scupper Assembly with Hinged Stainless Flapper (P/N SW1047) : Sports & Outdoors

Amazon.com : Seaworthy Innovations 316 Stainless Steel Boat Scupper Assembly with Hinged Stainless Flapper (P/N SW1047) : Sports & Outdoors

www.amazon.com

Scupper1 — Seaworthy Innovations

www.seaworthyinnovations.com

 

[luckydude]

First try to fix it is at http://mcvoy.com/lm/boat/2022-03-18-18.56.24.jpg

Was a little not cool to cut that hose, kinda scared to mess up a grady but it seems fine. Drains great.

 

[TopsulTime]

The last boat owned, after the repower, had the scuppers underwater. I trailer stored so made some modifications which worked fine for 10 yrs til sold. I put manual shutoff valves in my scupper tubes which I never had to shut because I also installed 2 ping pong ball scupper covers on the outside which always kept the water out without fail.

 

[glacierbaze]

That looks good, but someboDy is going to give you a hard time about not alternating the direction of your clamps.

 

[Fishtales]

The check valve (one way flow) is the ticket. There are real nice ones made of of PVC as well. I use them on sump pumps (dual that feed a single line), washer drains and marine applications. You can get the heavy duty metal bodies but really not needed. Def double clamp. When I change the hoses, I will install for sure.

 

[luckydude]

The check valve (one way flow) is the ticket. There are real nice ones made of of PVC as well. I use them on sump pumps (dual that feed a single line), washer drains and marine applications. You can get the heavy duty metal bodies but really not needed. Def double clamp. When I change the hoses, I will install for sure.

I looked at the PVC ones and had two issues (real or imagined):

a) They are longer, at least the ones I found were. They had slip or threaded fittings and then you needed to add a hose barb and you run out of room.

b) The flapper is rubber or something like it, again, in the ones I saw. I really like that the brass one has a brass, hinged, flapper, I think that will close instantly under any surge, not so sure about the rubber hinges, seems like they could be slower.

Thoughts on those issues? Real or not?

Oh, and not to be the terminology police, but in my experience, "check valve" means spring loaded and needs a decent PSI to work. I think what I got are called "swing valves" or something like that. They work like a check valve but need very little PSI to open the flapper.

 

[Fishtales]

Either will work in my opinion. I guess with a boat, the beefier the better. If the internal flapper fails you'll have 2 directional or no flow. No flow is unlikely to happen so worse case you have what you have today. What is good is that you will have water exiting the boat when it rains or gets wet unless a person or two are in the cockpit. When this happens, it won't drain but you won't get any seawater in.

 

[Skins88]

I just pop these in the rear drains on my 208 while stopped or trolling. Easy to pull out in am emergency.

Amazon.ca

 

[trapper]

I used the same plugs before I balanced my 208 with 2 batteries on port to balance kicker on starboard. I believe the Seafarer has horizontal scupper drains (flat on the deck with a grate) while the 208's are vertical at deck level. So don't think the plugs work with the horizontal scupper drains on the Seafarer.

 

[Olyfishin]

I finally got my new-to-me 1998 Grady 226 out fishing the last couple of days. As it was a shakedown trip, I knew I'd be learning a bit about the boat. The thing that didn't surprise me was that when backing into the wind/waves for halibut fishing that the motor well filled and thus I got a little water in the bilge. Those little flapper valves on the transom never quite seem to stop water from coming in. Happened on my previous boat, so I'm not too bothered by that. And, it's water in the motor well and not on the deck. Also, that's a pretty simple and cheap to get a new flapper valve.

But... the fact that water was coming into the cockpit through the floor drains was bothersome. I didn't expect that at all. Happened whenever we had a couple of guys in the back corner to net a salmon, even in perfectly calm water. What is interesting is that I moved the kicker bracket to the port side to avoid having too much weight on the starboard with the driver plus kicker. But the drain that really seemed to let the water in was the starboard drain. Go figure.

Anyway, I want to get that resolved. Would like to hear the reports of the inline check valve success you've had. That seems like the most likely to work well without having to run a new thru hull with a flapper integrated into it. Thanks!

 

[luckydude]

I finally got my new-to-me 1998 Grady 226 out fishing the last couple of days. As it was a shakedown trip, I knew I'd be learning a bit about the boat. The thing that didn't surprise me was that when backing into the wind/waves for halibut fishing that the motor well filled and thus I got a little water in the bilge. Those little flapper valves on the transom never quite seem to stop water from coming in. Happened on my previous boat, so I'm not too bothered by that. And, it's water in the motor well and not on the deck. Also, that's a pretty simple and cheap to get a new flapper valve.

But... the fact that water was coming into the cockpit through the floor drains was bothersome. I didn't expect that at all. Happened whenever we had a couple of guys in the back corner to net a salmon, even in perfectly calm water. What is interesting is that I moved the kicker bracket to the port side to avoid having too much weight on the starboard with the driver plus kicker. But the drain that really seemed to let the water in was the starboard drain. Go figure.

Anyway, I want to get that resolved. Would like to hear the reports of the inline check valve success you've had. That seems like the most likely to work well without having to run a new thru hull with a flapper integrated into it. Thanks!

The swing valves have been working for me. Initially they were no better than the rubber flaps but whatever changed, I have no idea, maybe a little salt makes them more likely to stick closed? I dunno but water in the back of the boat is no longer an issue and when I clean the boat water flows out just fine.

It's such a non-issue now I just don't think about them anymore.