On Mon, 12 Dec 2005 20:49:04 +0200, Mike the Spamkiller
wrote:


We usually open the toilet intake seacock when we get to our boat and
have it open as long as we are under way. Have reconsidered that
practice since then.

I draw lake water to flush through a seacock topped with a T-valve.
Above the T-valve (to the toilet and just a shave below the waterline)
is the drain hose to the sink. I leave the seacock SHUT unless I or
someone aboard is using the toilet. I have the option of emptying the
sink into the lake or if there's something noxious in the sink, I can
drain it into the toilet and then to the holding tank. This year, I
vented the loop as well. Everything is double-clamped. We've had two
boats sink at dock in a club of 220 in the last five years due to this
sort of issue...and it's completely avoidable.

The only seacock open when underway is the freshwater intake for the
motor. All others are shut unless in use. All others have bungs tied
to the seacock handles.

If you think of them not as seacocks but as "large holes in the bottom
of the boat capable of letting in dozens of gallons a minute" I find
it focuses the mind wonderfully.

R.