Draining cockpit on a mooring

[Graham W]

A topical one, this.  I am new to permanent moorings, so wonder what is the best policy for draining large amounts of rain from the cockpit when my BR20 is on its pontoon.  Open the inspection hatch through to the engine well, or keep one of the cockpit sump self bailers open?

[Peter Cockerton]

Graham

Just a thought, no practicle experience myself of leaving the boat in the water and not being able to use normal cover and straps. However i have had my cover modified to use as a mast up cover which i use as standard now when i leave the boat at Rutland. I use the mizzen mast in a crutch i made which uses the usual mizzen mast tab to elevate it to 12 inches or so, then attach other end of mizzen mast to strap on the main mast to form the cover ridge pole. This prevents water pooling and keeps the boat clean. With the normal under boat straps not being an option again you could modify an existing cover to use the fasteners on the side of the boat with elasticated cord. Might be worth considering as cleaning the bird muck up every time you want to sail will take hours. If you can't easily ridge pole the cover put a drain fixing and pipe to the outboard well in the area most likely to water pool.

Hopefully ideas usefull but again i have no experience of keeping my boat on the water for any lengthy periods. 

Peter

[Graham W]

Thanks Peter.  I had not thought of using the mizzen as a ridge pole.  I already have a mainmast gallows at the aft end for towing so I shall see what I can rig up when I check things tomorrow.  The alternative is to leave he mizzen mast rigged vertically as an end pole, which I would prefer not to do - it waggles about too much.

I already have a mooring cover with elasticated fasteners, unused until this month.  It is open at both ends and the current torrential rain is horizontal.  So although the birds are kept at bay, water must be getting through to the cockpit from one end or the other and I am about to go away for two weeks.  I used to have an overall cover but the mice ate very large holes in it this winter when I unwisely left it on the ground for a couple of weeks....

What about the idea of draining through one of the self bailers in the aft sump, if left open?  I assume that if there is sufficient water pooled in the sump, gravity will force the excess through the self bailer trap door even when the boat is stationary.  Anybody out there with any experience of that one?

Claus had a similar idea to yours of boring through to the engine well, but using a non return valve.  I am trying to avoid drilling any more holes in my boat, which is beginning to look like a Swiss cheese.  And the circular aft inspection hatch between the sump and the engine bay is in the right place but it seems a bit excessive to leave such a large hole open - marine life might start breeding inside the boat!

Good to see that the old forum is still functioning as a source of ideas, and not just as spam central.

[graham leighton]

I keep my B17 on a mooring all the time which dries. I have one of the mooring covers which is open each end. I have never had a problem with water in the cockpit; It will just evaporate away. The open ends &  light colour are to prevent excess heat build up under the cover, well that's what Matt told me.
If your mooring dries you may find a problem with mud jamming the centre board. If so see previous posts.

[Graham W]

Thanks Graham.  Luckily, my mooring is non-drying, so centreboard mud misery is not a problem.

[graham leighton]

I forgot to mention before, if you have a spray hood, make sure it hangs down so that water can drain off onto the floor rather than pool in creases.

[Graham W]

In the end, my worries were unfounded.  I returned to the boat after two weeks of atrocious weather to find a couple of inches of water in the sump, and that was all.  The mooring cover clearly worked well.

[retired2sail]

I just joined the forum and picked up on this because I keep my BR17 on a swinging mooring without a cover.  The cockpit of the 17 drains into wells each side of the outboard.  All I do is leave the bailers in the cockpit drain wells open and I have a permanently dry cockpit.  The drain wells have copper anti fouling (applied as new) so all I do is scrub around the wells from time to time to keep the growth off the bailers. You can see the layout in the attached photo.

[Julian Swindell]

Just to add a little to this, which shows how fortunate we are with the self draining cockpits on Swallow boats. There is a Drascombe Lugger mooored alongside my BayCruiser in Poole. It has a partial cockpit cover which, rather bizzarly, is fitted inside its gunwhales, so that all diverted water stays in the boat. I think it is meant to keep seagull mess off. Last weekend it was swamped on its mooring in all of the rain we have had. Raising it will be a significant problem as it is swamped below the centre board arm slot, so it can't be bailed out. I think they will have to wait until the tide is high enough to float the boat off the bottom and then tow it, full of water, to a slipway, where they can beach it and bail it out as the tide falls. All the rain that falls on my wide open cockpit just drains into the sumps around the motor and out.

[Graham W]

There is a Drascombe Lugger mooored alongside my BayCruiser in Poole. It has a partial cockpit cover which, rather bizzarly, is fitted inside its gunwhales, so that all diverted water stays in the boat.

I was talking to a Lugger owner today and apparently this is the standard fitting for a Drascombe cover.  The water is supposed to flow onto the outward sloping side benches and then out through scuppers. Perhaps the scuppers were blocked.