FWIW, from the West Marine catalog "The West Advisor": "One other note of caution: For safety reasons, we don't recommend safety seacocks for emergency dewatering because-if done improperly- it may disable the engine when it is most needed. This process would require shutting the sea cock valve and pulling the quick release plug so the engine takes water from the flooded bilge for cooling, instead of outside water. A far better solution is an electrically-clutched PTO pump from Jabsco, multiple high capacity centrifugal bilge pumps, or a driveshaft mounted pump like those from Erickson." This is from the Master Catalog on p. 547 just below the Groco Safety Seacock Conversion kit. I wonder how many of those they sell? Jim Fidler "Fiddlesticks"

Jim Fidler wrote: > FWIW, from the West Marine catalog "The West Advisor": > > "One other note of caution: For safety reasons, we don't recommend > safety seacocks for emergency dewatering because-if done improperly- > it may disable the engine when it is most needed. An interesting addition to this is that one of my customers was dinged by the surveyor about just such a seacock. It was listed under the "Recommendations" category to remove it. He was required to satisfy all recommendations by the insurance company. The surveyors reasoning, spoken to the owner, not written, was exactly what WM states in their catalog. That it is too easy for an inexperienced person, or a short handed crew, to disable the engine, thus complicating an already bad situation. I don't know if it is just a pet peeve of that particular surveyor, or if this is a coming trend. It would be interesting to see what would happen if such a surveyor did a survey on a fairly new Cabo. Speaking of Cabos, I was looking one over at the recent San Diego boat show. I got to talking to the sales person and one of the topics was the emergency bilge pumping seacock setup. His comments was that most customers either don't know what it is or where it is, and those that do probably wouldn't use it properly in an emergency if they had to. Not a very positive view of the customers of what is supposed to be a top line sportfisher. Jim -- Jim McCorison Starfish Marine (619) 337-5370 http://manana.mccorison.com - Our Travels with Maqana http://www.starfishmarine.com - My Business This posting is for the exclusive use of the Trawlers & Trawlering (T&T) email list. Any other use, or posting to other lists or sites, is expressly prohibited unless written authorization has been given by Starfish Marine.