Draining

Yeah, I mentioned this last time.

Eolian has two large lazarettes under her aft deck:

The lids for these drop into gutters molded into the deck.  I'm sure that as soon as they washed this boat that first time in the factory, they discovered that water overflowed the gutters and into the lazarettes.

So, they cut in a drain.  And just in case, they also installed a drain in the lazarettes too.  And all was well in Whoville.

For a while.

But sadly, when it rains, all manner of crap finds its way to the drains.  Yes, they block right at the top, and I periodically clear them.  More insidiously, they also block down below...  And when they do that, the lazarette fills with water.  And it doesn't drain thru the factory-installed drain... because the blockage is below that, at least it was last time.  In fact, when this happens, the water that goes down the gutter drain backs up thru the lazarette drain, actually making things worse!

And, as it turns out, the lazarette is not quite water tight.  That water slowly leaks down. Onto the foot of our mattress.  At my feet.  This is no bueño.

Thankfully this only happens when it rains.

Each of the drains has a 1/2" hose that led to this fitting tower, 

The fitting tower

which was screwed onto a thru hull located probably 18" above the waterline.  And as usual, in a near-inaccessible location, beneath my berth.

When I passed a piece of heavy wire down the drain in an attempt to clear the blockage, I was unable to make it turn the corner at the elbow.  Blockage one; me zero.

OK, time for a change in design.

I removed the fittings from the thru hull (remember: nearly inaccessible...).  Then I installed a hose barb wye fitting, with the two arms accepting the two drain hoses (still inaccessible...).  Finally, I installed a hose from the tail of the wye, curving it direct to the thru hull (inaccessible...).    To prevent a kink, I heated that hose with a heat gun and bent it into a sweeping 90° angle.  Being a wye, I should be able to pass a piece of wire thru it from either drain fitting without a hangup.

Because I was exhausted on completing this work, I failed to take any pictures - sorry. 

Opening a beer was higher on my priority list.

Draining