We dodged a HUGE bullet....

[GFC]

I went down to the boat last week to get things ready for our annual spring cruise up the Snake River. In checking things out I found the AC/heat system was not putting out any water over the side. Then I remembered that I had closed the thru-hull fitting. This fitting and strainer sits all the way at the stern, down in the lazarette.

When I opened it there was a flood of water coming into the lazarette. I'm not talking a little stream, I'm talking a HUGE jet of water.

Well, being the unusually astute guy that I am it didn't take me long to realize that was not a good thing, nor was it the usual SOP. So I closed it again. On further inspection I realized that the glass sight bowl in the strainer had apparently frozen and broke, allowing the water to enter when the thru-hull was opened.

This winter was unusually cold (temps well below freezing) for an unusually long time (a couple of weeks). It must have been during this period that the sight bowl froze. Thankfully I was smart enough to close the thru-hulls on the boat or my boat might have ended up on the bottom like the one that sank behind me.

During the past week I've had a marine mechanic on the boat to replace the sight jar and do a couple of other things for me. I can't wait to get back down there to check it out and make sure everything is ready for our trip.

NOTE TO SELF: Next fall, be sure to drain the sight bowl after using the heat in the Christmas boat parade and after the New Year's Day cruise. Also, put a heater in the laz.

 

[janice142]

Great reminder. Thanks!

 

[Egregious]

Just curious, what is the water temp in your area during winter? And what was the lowest (air) temperature you had during that winter?

 

[Wxx3]

How far up the Snake do you go?

Beautiful country.

 

[GFC]

Janice, you're most welcome. That's why I posted it. Funny thing is I almost never closed them before. That won't happen again when the temps start to drop.

Egregious, normally we have a week or so where the air temps drop down around freezing or a few degrees below at night, but warm up into the 30's during the day. This past winter we had about 2 weeks where the temps were in the teen's to twenties day and night. Global warming my foot! Water temps normally run about 40* in the winter months and we almost never get any ice in the bay where my boat is kept. This winter, with all the cold air temps, we had about 3" of ice in there. I've owned a Kasco pump for deicing for several years but this is the first time I've had to use it. Here's a link to a thread I did on that...http://www.trawlerforum.com/forums/s32/i-love-when-plan-works-13643.html

Global warming my foot!

 

[GFC]

Wxx3, we're only going up about 13 miles or so to Fishhook Park. This trip will be with a group of boats from Clover Island Yacht Club and two others from my club, Richland Yacht Club. We do those cruises in the spring before the park opens and in the fall after it closes so we pretty much have it all to ourselves.

I've been all the way (155 miles) to Lewiston, ID and that's a great trip. Beautiful scenery, flat waters, warm days. Darn near perfect!

 

[healhustler]

Geeze, Mike. Glad you caught it but I'd get rid of the worry of sight glass style strainers if I couldn't guarantee they stay drained in the winter.

 

[Conall63]

The yard where I'm working on my boat, raised, and hauled in three boats this winter that sank due to sea cocks being left open and the strainer cans freezing and splitting. I'm on the Ohio river outside of Cincinnati and we had a fairly brutal Winter with an extended period of below zero lows, and single digit highs.

Cheers,

Conall
Conall's Boat Build

 

[GFC]

Geeze, Mike. Glad you caught it but I'd get rid of the worry of sight glass style strainers if I couldn't guarantee they stay drained in the winter.

Larry, the problem wasn't that it didn't stay drained, it was that I didn't think about draining it and didn't know there was a drain on it. My bad and I accept full blame for that stupidity, or lack of knowledge of the equipment. I've had the boat for four years now and there's still a lot I have to learn about it.

A friend who also is a boater said he can make me new sight bowls out of 1/2" Lexan. That would solve any freezing/breaking problem so I may explore that further. That being said, if I were to make sure I opened the drains on each of the strainers and left them open, that should also do away with the problem.

I'm also going to move one of the heaters that I'm currently using in the salon back to the lazarette to keep that area warm during the cold spells.

 

[sunchaser]

From my inland boating days where boats are left all winter in the Mississippi, we not only shut the sea cock but then opened the strainer drain to insure any water dripping from engine does not pool in strainer or above valve.