Plumbing problem with city water connection

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1) I had a water hose come loose on my boat and dump the contents of the tank into the bilge. Apparently the PO or someone didn't assemble the fitting correctly. Hooked to city water and unattended, this would probably have sunk the boat.

The tank and its plumbing are on the suction side of the pump. The most pressure they will see is the head pressure at the height of the deck fill, perhaps 5-6 pi. The city water pressure is not hooked to the tank. It Ts in on the pressure side of the water pump. In this failure city water would not have flooded the boat.

You missed the point. You are focusing on the location of the failed fitting in my particular case, not the possibility of a fitting failing. If a fitting (or piping) fails on the city water side, the boat will have full city water pressure, limited only by the size of the piping for an unlimited time. You never run out of city water.

Your average bilge pump won't keep up with this flow rate and these pumps are not designed for continuous duty. Bye bye boat.
 
"Your average bilge pump won't keep up with this flow rate and these pumps are not designed for continuous duty. Bye bye boat."

Same for seacock leak , except the flow rate may be higher.
 
Back to evaluating risks.

Some have lived aboard and worked on the water around hundreds if not thousands of boats day in and day out.....and others.....

Well......
 
Since I never will use a city water connection, I removed and capped the water line at the fitting. No worries about a leak there any more.
 
The best way to have little fear from an underwater connection is to have fresh high quality hose fitted to it.
 
Well I think this discussion will be finally resolved right after we determine which is the best anchor, which is better singles or twins, which prop nut goes on first. As one who lives "aboard and worked on the water around hundreds if not thousands of boats day in and day out." many comments here have raised the possible failure modes, but the probabilities are so very low. The examples of hypothetical failures include several simultaneous failures which are necessary to create a sinking. A bilge pump can handle it if large enough. My 1500 does handle it, but the discharge hose run is short, 6 feet. . A longer discharge with higher head might not keep up.. A bilge pump that cannot keep up will none the less slow the problem giving more time for the problem to be noticed. If you leave your boat unattended for long periods with the city water turned on, then you might be inviting trouble. Leaving the boat for a few hours has no demonstrated significant risk.
 
Some have lived aboard and worked on the water around hundreds if not thousands of boats day in and day out...........

And some of those folks are as dumb as a box of rocks. Doing the same thing over and over again doesn't make someone any smarter than the next guy.
 
But some aren't, and see where real boating issues are...not what they hear or read about...they live it.

Never brought up smarter...just real experience.....
 
And some of those folks are as dumb as a box of rocks. Doing the same thing over and over again doesn't make someone any smarter than the next guy.

Well thanks Wes K. I have been a marine industry professional designing, engineering, building and repairing boats my entire 50 year career. I'll just sit back shut up and let you armchair experts expound on how to do it.
 
Well thanks Wes K. I have been a marine industry professional designing, engineering, building and repairing boats my entire 50 year career. I'll just sit back shut up and let you armchair experts expound on how to do it.
Whatever floats your boat! :rolleyes:
 
No wonder so many pros and top posters have left thru the years or were thrown off for responding to these kind of posts with heated responses.
 
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