So far they’ve dismasted it, rolled it over, bashed holes in the hull and now we see what happens when you lose a seacock or through-hull transducer.
Seacocks can fail disastrously with no warning if they have been allowed to corrode or have been badly installed. A shocking number of boats are fitted with brass seacocks, apparently, and these can corrode and fail in short order – I saw a report where a boat nearly sank when a 16 month old brass seacock failed through corrosion!
Make sure your seacocks are Bronze, DZR or, my own preference, Marelon.
Anyway, the intrepid Crash Test Boat team deliberately broke off seacocks and smashed transducer fittings to test ways of stopping the influx. They tested the old soft wood bungs we’ve all carried for years and found them to be effective but with some reservation – they rely on the hole being symmetrical for maximum sealing.
Another solution was the Forespar TruPlug, a composite rubber bung that looks like something that might be on offer in a sex toy emporium catering to the more extreme tastes. The Tru Plug was given high marks for efficacy because it conforms to the shape of distorted openings; against it was its price – about £20. You’d probably want to keep one in an obvious location and take it to the site of the failure rather than have one tied to each through hull as you might do with wooden bungs.
The team also tried the old traditional solutions – a carrot and a potato – and both performed admirably with the spud just pipping the carrot on effectiveness.
I love this YM series – it’s both entertaining and of true benefit to boat owners and operators.
