Sea Chest Help - Seahorse 52

This weekend, we discovered that Seahorse 52 Seachest was clogged and the previous owner probably never cleaned it and I'm surprised the boat didn't over heat sooner.

When the engines ran, the generator ran out of water, so we realized that the strainer was severely clogged.

We live on the Chesapeake Bay, so we constantly fight barnacles and other growth on the Bay...

I dove under the boat and used my hand to clear out any growth under the boat and in the strainer tube.

Then I opened up the top of the sea chest at my dock and realized that there is a strainer that seems like it may come out or twist off, but I did NOT attempt this as it seemed a little too risky at my home dock. It was loaded with growth and really clogged.

My main questions:

Is there a way to take off that strainer inside the seachest to service on a regular basis?

Is there a method that works for others when cleaning it to keep growth, barnacles from getting sucked into the engine, Gen and AC intakes?

What do other owners do as far as a procedure to make sure growth does not get into the intakes?

Any insight or directions for the sea chest upkeep is appreciated.

My previous offer stands. If you want the full boat and engines surveys I had done on her let me know.

Hi Menzies,

Thank you for the offer and I had sent you a private message with my email address. I take it that private message didn't go through? Haha...

Just checked my inbox history. Nothing there from you. Check your sent in case it never went.

Haven't had such an issue. Listening for informative responses.

Haven't fooled with the chestbox, but there appears to be a metal strip atop the screen for its removal. Have you checked with the builder?

In case you did not know, there is a user group on Yahoo that might be helpful.

seahorse52@yahoogroups.com.

Yahoo's user interface stinks to high heaven which just might be why they are being sold. If you can get past the user interface the group seems to have good information and is helpful.

Later,
Dan

This is what my sea chest looks like...

They are not sideways of course... Lol

Thought maybe you were trying to dump the water out of it......

The top my sea chest is above the waterline with eight studs w/ nuts holding it on. Remove the top and pry the lid loose but be careful of the gasket. Also, make a mark on the lid and the side of the chest so it goes on the same way it came off. Inside the chest it a tube about 2 ft long, 2 inches wide with an bunch of holes the entire length to let water flow in. Pull it out and scrub inside and out of the tube, then put back in the chest. At the bottom of the inside of the chest is a hollow tube that the strainer fits over. Also one on the underside of the lid. Bolt the lid down and you're good to go.
The first time I did it was a little scary as I expected water to come rushing in, it didn't. My guess is yours is also above the waterline also, how else to clean it short of a haul out? Good luck.

The tube I have is about 2' X 8" wide Looks like it could unscrew counter clockwise and come out. My chest is above water line and I think I'm going to wait to try to remove the screen/strainer the first time until the boat is at the boat yard to clean. I'm a bit worried about getting the screen back on.

I have twin cummins 370s, gen and AC all on the chest

We are doing a mini over-haul on the engines (complements of the seller) so once that's all done, I'm going to pull the boat and make sure it's done right the first time. We have it pretty clean now...

Ps I love this forum

As stated above, I have always thought that a seachest could be easily cleaned since the top was above the waterline.

If you feel uncomfortable about it shoot Bill Kimley an email. He was always very responsive to mine even though I never bought from him.