I have both editions of the Encyclopedia for Cruising. I cannot find much information regarding cockpit drains. I have a center cockpit 53′ steel sailboat with a good sized cockpit. Currently I have 4 drains in the lowest footwell. Each goes to its own thru hull. On a sail from San Diego to Fla. we had occasion to ship some water but that was rare and drained in less then 10 to 15 seconds. My question is this: I want to reduce the number of thru hulls and will be doing so on intakes and some exhausts. These drains in the cockpit are only effective on the downhill side mostly. They are only 18 inches from each other in the corner of a footwell. Can I cross connect them so that highside and lowside use only one thru hull?–Bob
Hi Bob: As long as you keep the cross sectional area of the through hulls the same, i.e. increase the size of the single drain so that it equals at least the two combined. Remember the real issue is a big sea–and getting it drained before you ship a second in heavy going. Also, getting the water out before it tests the water tight integrity of your hatch boards! As a general rule, most boats are built with cockpit drains which are way too small–when in doubt, make them bigger. Regards–Steve Dashew
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
