Anchor locker

Did all the KK42's have anchor lockers that drained into the bilge? I am in the process of drilling drain holes on either side so the lockers drain overboard, but I was kind of surprised to find that was where all the water in the bow was coming from.

Some opinions are that water could be forced into the anchor locker through the drains in heavy seas. That may be why it drains into the bilge...

Very little drains into the bilge

As far as I know, all the KK42s drain into the forward bilge. If you enclose the anchor locker and drill drain holes through the hull, remember the hull is cored and you’ll have to seal the coring.

meridian said:

Very little drains into the bilge

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If that is true then maybe I need to look for a leak in the deck. My only experience so far is our delivery trip to get the boat up here. Couple weeks of anchoring the boat most nights and washing down the chain each morning, and we had about 4” of water in the forward bilge when we arrived.

I have all chain rode and there is not that much water that stays in the locker and I have 550 ft of chain.

AKDoug said:

Some opinions are that water could be forced into the anchor locker through the drains in heavy seas. That may be why it drains into the bilge...

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My anchor locker drains overboard but is sealed from the bilges, and everything else, for at least 6' above the waterline. So, in my case, whatever water may be forced in will just slosh around and wash up the locker until gravity drains it. Ingenious!

Stripper.

IMHO - Don't drill holes in the front of the bow of your hull just for your anchor lockers drainage. IMHO - That would be a mistake. You have a cored hull - you can't just drill any where without causing problems, if not done properly. Access to the inside of those holes you want to drill is difficult as well.

On the KK-42, IMHO, they would have to be to low on the hull to be of any value as far as anchor locker drainage goes & in a sea way & going into head seas to much water will come in. the anchor locker is by design, set up to drain to front bilge. The KK-42 Anchor locker is not sealed like some other boats are, so water can full up & spill out into the interior of the boat up there.

If there currently is a lot of water in there, look to see it source & why it is not draining & instead is gathering there becoming standing water, as ALL water that gets in there if all is OK is designed to drain to bilge where your bilge pumps, pump it over board, so something must be plugged up or restricting it free flow to the pump area.

Of course you could easily add a small bilge pump in there if you wanted which is a better solution that drilling holes in the bow hull.

Good Luck.

Alfa Mike

I don’t like anchor rode water draining into the bilge, over time it can cause smells. On a previous boat the bottom of the rope locker was below the waterline a bit. I added a false bottom to the locker and glassed the plywood back of the locker so that it was sealed well and then drilled a drain hole through one side so that it drained overboard. When I added the false bottom I slanted it to the side I was going to add the drain on. Then I added a slat bottom so that the water could flow easily to the drain. I would not be afraid to drill a hole in the cored hull, just seal it properly with epoxy.

Stripper said:

If that is true then maybe I need to look for a leak in the deck. My only experience so far is our delivery trip to get the boat up here. Couple weeks of anchoring the boat most nights and washing down the chain each morning, and we had about 4” of water in the forward bilge when we arrived.

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FYI: Our float switch for the forward bilge goes on ~2”, off at ~3/4” and 4” is where our high water alarm scares me.

The amount of water you mentioned may not be a lot if the bilge pump isn’t working as it should. You mentioned it was a delivery. There could have been some water before you started the trip. We have a cover for the windlass when we’re at the dock so rain water isn’t entering there. The way it rains where you are, it wouldn’t surprise me if you had some additional water in the bilge and I wouldn’t sweat any potential leaks let.

If you are rinsing the chain while it’s in the locker, that’s your source of water.

Also, if a locker drains to the bulge vs overboard, my first assumption would be that the locker floor is below the waterline. So check very carefully before drilling.

A really easy way to see if it above or below the waterline is to put a large rare earth magnet on the inside where yiu think you want to drill the hole. Then go outside and use another rare earth magnet and it will clamp onto the hull where the one inside is. You may want to tape the one inside in place so it does not move when you are putting the one outside in place. I have done this on my deck also and it worked through the 1” gap between the bottom of the deck and the headliner.

On my 42 I had a transducer that was not sealed causing water in the forward bilge. Dry it out with a wet/dry vac, tape the chain pipe and wait a day or so.

The anchor-chain floor on my boat was very close to the waterline, causing leakage into the forward cabin if exceeding five knots. The solution was to construct a higher fiberglass floor.

Thanks for the responses. I don't have a problem drilling holes in the boat. Dealing with a cored hull is really no big deal, and I already have about 20 holes scattered around the boat, many below the waterline, so one or two more that I know are done right is no big deal.
I started digging more and it looks like I may have a deck leak and that is where the water in the bow came from. I hate trying to trace and fix deck leaks, would have rather had it been anchor wash down water, but....
I still may go ahead and drill the drain holes, I like the idea of being able to wash down the anchor locker and not get that crap inside the boat. There is no chance of a flooding issue, the anchor locker access is at the same level as my ports, if the water is that high I'll be looking at it from the life raft.

Bottom of anchor locker is under waterline

FYI - on KK-42's, the OE design is that the Bottom of anchor locker is under waterline. -- May have been modified by PO, so double check that.

drilling a drain hole that is above the bottom of anchor locker defeats the purpose of having it in the first place & will not drain out the standing water. -- but will fill it with sea water when underway into the waves.

Please measure twice.

Unless modified by some one before you, there is a small drain to the front bilge in there at the bottom of the locker, Although it may be plugged with dirt - this was set up from the KK factory for the anchor locker to drain to the front bilge.

The anchor locker wall is not designed to be the only water tight barrier to the sea.

Be sure you really know what your doing before you make Swiss Cheese out of the bow of your boat.

If your not installing a second locker floor that is above the water line by a significant amount & glassing it in for structural strength your going to have a surprise when the dirt & debris gets cleaned out of the bottom drain.

Closer inspection is needed & careful measuring recommended.

Good Luck.

Alfa Mike

I appreciate the words of caution. Our anchor locker must have been previously modified as the bottom is obviously above waterline.
After more than 20 years of personally and professionally working on boats, I have yet to drill a hole below the waterline with the boat in the water. I'd hate to break that streak now.....

I walked from a "balsa cored below waterline" boat because of the risks of thru hulls not done properly. I was told by someone, who had worked for the importers, the builders used silicone as the sealant . How have you gone about ensuring the core safety,protected from water intrusion?

.... on KK-42's, the OE design is that the Bottom of anchor locker is under waterline...

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I’m not sure that’s right. This is from the “Inboard Profiles” page of the construction drawings, page no: 353-4 for the KK42 which fits for Hobo’s build. The anchor locker floor is the horizontal line above the D.W.L.

That looks about right for ours. My measurements put the floor of the shower right about at WL. I was going to check the drawings as well but haven't been to storage yet.

I stand corrected

I see in the blueprint the lay out & your right -- it is above the DWL.

So it shows an anchor locker bottom up about 6 to 12 inches above the water line when stationary & with No seas or waves. However there is still a drain hole that allows any excess water to drain to the bilge.

OP says his was glassed over, so that is what is causing the water to gather & stand there.

So I stand corrected. But I still would not drill a hole in the outer hull at the front of the bow that was 12 inches above the water line.

But it will drain when your at the dock.

Good luck.

Alfa Mike

lockers that drained into the bilge

Stripper said:

Did all the KK42's have anchor lockers that drained into the bilge? I am in the process of drilling drain holes on either side so the lockers drain overboard, but I was kind of surprised to find that was where all the water in the bow was coming from.

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My boat is a Blue Ocean 45' build by Chung Hwa 1985 and I have the same system. The water coming from the chain goes into the bilge. Not much water is coming in. It can be worst in a heavy rain. The chain should be covered so that it does not drive the rain water in.

If you do drills it has to be very well calculated because when the boat sinks the bow the water comes under a lot of pressure.

Armando

IMHO, your cure is worse than the problem.

My chain locker is above the water line, but i get very little water in the fwd blige grin the anchor chain.

Mt chain stays dry.

Drilling holes will open it up to getting water forced in and subsequent corrosion of the chain.

While my primary bilge pump won't turn on until water is above 1.5", I installed a much smaller bilge pump that drains into the shower sump.
This allows me to get virtually all the water out, if any accumulates.

You're not alone

All the early versions of the KK48 also had the anchor locker drain into the forward bilge. I looked into modifying our 48 (hull #5) by creating a well at the bottom of the locker and then running a drain tube to an exit just above the waterline but it was just too hard and (if done by the yard) expensive. I work VERY hard to keep the anchor chain clean as it comes up and try to allow as little water into the locker as possible. Most of the time our forward bilge is dry as a bone so I guess my efforts are paying off.

I’m with Wxx3, Running the hose to the shower sump would be the best. The configuration on my KK42 has the water from the chain dripping into the bilge, running under the holding tank, then to the after area of the forward stateroom bilge. Since it’s rather flat in that area, it doesn’t get an opportunity to pump out. If I added a hose it would be one of 1” diameter running to the shower sump.
Large diameter to accommodate the bits of mud and critters which seem to come up on my “cleaned” chain. I doubt I’ll ever do the job since it’s never really been an issue.
Just my 2 cents....

Wxx3 said:

IMHO, your cure is worse than the problem.

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I agree with Richard and others here. Don’t do it.

Jim

I appreciate the input from everyone. This all started as a solution to having standing water in the forepeak bilge. After several folks noted that they get very little water coming in from the anchor chain, I started digging further. Turns out the water is not coming in from the anchor chain, so I can move on to one of the dozens of other projects on the boat.

Stripper said:

I appreciate the input from everyone. This all started as a solution to having standing water in the forepeak bilge. After several folks noted that they get very little water coming in from the anchor chain, I started digging further. Turns out the water is not coming in from the anchor chain, so I can move on to one of the dozens of other projects on the boat.

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Apologies for being flippant when a serious discussion is under way but for our cruising lifestyle we never anchor out.
Instead we removed the anchor and it's chocks, stowed them and the chain in the bilge as ballast.
We then lined the anchor locker with expanded polyurethane foam sheets and we buy our favourite quality wines in the late autumn spring when the vintners sell off their wines cheap to make way for the new harvest.

Priorities, love it ! I met a single handler Monk 36 owner who used the micro sized bath tub as a beer cooler, filled the tub with beer and ice, worked perfect, even had a built in water drain. He also removed the walk around queen and made the aft stateroom into a lounge area with his cold beer close by.