Keeping sea cocks closed??

[Ronrog]

I am new to GW and have put on about 50 hours on my 376 Canyon, so far, this season. After reading the manuals and Captain Grady, it says to keep the "live Bait well", "generator" and "HVAC" sea cocks closed when not using one of the 3 functions. My question, is

"Is this a major concern, to make sure the sea cocks are closed when not using one of these functions"

Any advice is welcomed.

Ron

 

[ElyseM]

you keep seacocks closed to prevent water intrusion in the event of a busted attached hose. there are some who leave them open all the time.

on the genset, however, it is essential to close the seacock when not in use. the water will be forced into the genset and potentially cause major issues. good luck, ron

 

[jip40]

Ron

I have 5 thru hulls & the only two I keep closed are the overboard discharge (required by law) and the live well (because I use it for dry storage when not fishing with live bait). Which means I keep the genny, A/C & raw water wash down open. I changed out the genny and A/C strainers for much larger Raritan Raw Water Strainers because the strainers supplied by G-W were constantly getting packed with debris.

I have close to 1,000 hours, having run the boat for many hours in rough to very rough conditions, and never had a problem. I did check with dealers and techs before making the decision to leave them open. The greatest majority of the advise was to leave them open. Have I been lucky and dodged some bullets or is there really not an issue with leaving them open?

Regards,

 

[ElyseM]

i'm surprised that you haven't run into any problems with the genset. i haven't seen a mfg that doesn't recommend closing when not in use to prevent forced water into the head.

like i said, many leave them open. i would hope you occasionally check their operation, as leaving them open could lead to frozen valves and the inability to close them in an emergency.

everybody has their own methods. good luck, ron

 

[jbrinch88]

Really depends on what style thru-hull is installed for each unit. Scoop style will allow water to flow in with the the valve open but flat/mushroom style thru-hulls shouldn't.

 

[Fishtales]

Good practice not to have any seacock open unless using the device. As stated, if you have a failure water is coming in.
The genset specifically says not to run with the seacock open while the generator is not running. Water is picked up through the thru hole and will flood the generator. You may not have issues immediately, but saltwater goes into places it shouldn't and down the line you may have issues.
I believe the same is for the AC.
As for the livewell, there is no issue other than water is picked up and can start to fill the livewell. On my 282, it would literally fill and overflow at running speed.
Raw water washdown is no issue except if the line should break.
The macerator overboard discharge is required by law to be closed and some suggest some sort of lock on it. Kinda crazy on the Grady as you have to not only open the cock, you have to turn on the breaker and then use a key to start the pump. Almost makes it impossible to discharge by accident.

 

[cgmiller]

some of these boats have sea cocks in difficult places to reach so laziness and complacency tend to have them left open....I never leave mine open...and I installed a large hatch in the deck an d relocated my 1 seacock so I can actually put my hand on it...other day I was checking my washdown pump and I bumped the 1 year old good quality reinforced hose and it broke off...had I been running and hit a wave it may have sheared off and sunk the boat....better to be safe than sorry in my opinion..

 

[CleanupRequired]

Whether you choose to keep them open or closed when not in use, it is always a good idea to exercise (open and close) the valve on a regular basis to ensure it doesn't get corroded and stuck. I've heard of a couple of instances where the valve corroded and when the owner tried to close the sea-cock, the corroded valve broke causing a severe leak.

 

[Fishtales]

While you are down there, check the rods ends that connect to the valves. The newer boats have SS swivel ends, the mid 2000s and earlier have steel swivels that will corrode and break. GW offers new SS replacement ends.

 

[everwhom]

I replaced a pry-out deck plate with a screw-in plate (both made by Beckson -- they were very helpful in identifying the right one) to make it easier to get to and operate the genset and A/C thru hulls. I go with the keep them closed when not in use strategy, but good to know that if I forget the genset seacock, it probably will be OK.

On my previous boat the seacocks were very hard to reach so I just left them open (no genset on that boat). I never had a problem, but I did notice that the seacocks were much harder to operate because of marine growth.

 

[Ronrog]

As the original poster of this topic, I say

"thanks to all of the informative responses"

... it always helps to know how other GW owner's handle the mechanical functions of their boats....

Ron

 

[Harpoon]

I may leave them open for extended periods....but I know the condition of the hoses and clamps. Also I open and close them occasionally to be sure they will function. In fact, I replaced one this past fall because it was very tight and had limited functionality. These trough hulls/hoses are a common cause of sinking. If you're filling up with water these are your first items to check/close.

Two weeks ago a 25' walk around filled up and rolled over on Jefferies ledge in 48F water. By the time they noticed it was too late. Clearly a hose must of detached from a thru hull. A nearby boat picked them up while they were still dry.

 

[JoleGW33]

I always close them when not in use to prevent any damage (due to flooding the genset or if a tubing gives out)..

If you are on drystack its also a good idea to close the AC seacock before taking the boat out of the water, because if it completely drains, the AC system could get full of air and you would have to bleed the air out.

 

[Sharkbait282]

2002 282, just replaced the plastic livewell pump that most GW of that era had mounted directly to the sea cock.

Last week I cleaned out the tackle tray that fits under the aft bench seat, directly over where the old pump was mounted. The plastic livewell pump had quit at the end of last year, but I had never noticed the rust colored spray pattern on the bottom of the tackle tray.

So if high pressure water was pushing through the top of the livewell pump housing while I was running with the sea cock open, how much more of a failure was needed to sink the boat?

I now run with the sea cocks predominantly closed unless I'm using either the raw washdown or livewell.

 

[Lt.Mike]

As for the livewell, there is no issue other than water is picked up and can start to fill the livewell. On my 282, it would literally fill and overflow at running speed.

This past week my wife and I were fishing the Delaware river from Burlington north. Most of the day we motored along at about 30mph or so and saw no issue, I was keeping the speed down taking it easy on both us and the boat. At the end of the day when running back I opened it up for a short full throttle blast that was in the high 40's and Paula saw that the forward livewell was overflowing onto the deck. I didn't have the pump on and when it is on, the 800gph livewell pump won't overcome the drain. The forced flow of water through the strainer must be significantly higher than that pumps output and certainly that of my bilge pump. If a line blew I doubt the bilge pump would do much against it at least while running. Water could fill up the bilge very quickly.
I doubt I'd know if the bilge pump was running as you can't hear it run even when the boat is anchored engine off.

I'm thinking about hooking up a float switch to a warning light possibly with an alarm at the helm that would alert me if the boat was taking water.
I'd mount it a little higher than the bilge pumps working depth so its not going off for routine bilge pump duty. I don't think it would cost very much to put that together.
edit: I see they are available and if I thought ahead I would have found room for it in the new dash I installed last winter. :roll:
Oh well, I'll find room somewhere for it.
Mike.