The effect of heeling has always to be considered. I do not know whether my
Catalina 38 is the same as all others but when I got her over here I
investigated the propane installation and found that the bottle was
installed in a fibreglass cylinder in the cockpit locker,hard against the
port side of the hull. This bottle container was vented overboard by a
short pipe to a thruhull just above the waterline.
It was evident from the rust stains inside the grp container and on the
bottom of the bottle itself that when she was heeled on the starboard tack
water was coming up the drainpipe and standing inside the bottle container
to a depth of several inches.
That was not going to sink the boat if the drain was properly clipped but
the clip had ben left off to ease the changing of the bottle. Even worse,
someone had overcome the water entry problem by fitting a very long length
of hose and carrying it right up under the deck above the top of the
container and then bringing it down again to the thruhull. No way propane
was going up and then down again, so had there been a leak it would have
filled the container to the top and then spilled over into the bilge. So
they were living dangerously but got lucky there was no propane leak.
I have reinstated the original arrangement with proper clips on the pipe so
no worries if water does come into the container when heeled. It will run
out again when she comes upright. But next winter I shall shift the whole
bottle installation nearer to the centreline of the boat so water cannot
get in.
Edgar

"Frank Boettcher" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 17 Jun 2006 07:43:02 -0400, DSK wrote:
Absolutely. It made my trip. We stopped for maintenance (we had some
poorly designed anti siphon loops that were attempting to sink the
boat when significantly heeled) but it was great to watch those long
distance speed machines come in. Just being around it was a lot of
fun.

Frank