!Change Your Scupper Drain Hose Now!

[Nick J]

I was clearing the engine bay in prep for paint tonight and I got to the scupper drain hose. It's the corrugated white hose that leads to a thru hull below the sink in 32's, 35's, and 38's. I know it's been discussed before, but it can't be understated how important this hose is. Part of this system lives under the water line and when I started removing it a slight bend caused the hose to crack about 1' from the thru hull. At the very least, close your thru hulls when you leave the boat. This one was on the list, but I had no idea how close to failure it was. Not a great pic, but the two slits in the corrugated ring and the dent in the side are holes in the hose

I don't have the replacement hose yet, so I stuck the old one out the strut hole in case it rains over the next few days (I'm currently on the hard)

 

[Saverio]

damn !! I would change

 

[dcoyle]

I had a similar hose running to manual bilge pump as well as cockpit drains. The bilge hose split a few seasons ago in the bilge as I was cleaning at end of season. Scary! I replaced the cockpit drain hoses a year ago. Wasnt too bad of a project but of course a bit more work than just replacing the hoses.

 

[Christian Williams]

Good point. On the 381, two cockpit drains are T'd to a thru-hull next to the engine that is well below the waterline. The former owner replaced the originals with heavy duty hose and the required double hose clamps, which gives me peace of mind.

...
When I replaced the other two cockpit drain hoses, which exit under the counter and are out of the water when the boat is moored (the hoses seen wrapped around the rudder tube in photo above) , I used a more flexible hose product. I also routed them direct, rather than crossed, with no issues of cockpit flooding while heeled.

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Installation photo, hose clamps not secured.......................................Factory shows crossed outer drains

Failure of hose on a seacock below the water can of course sink a boat. But more likely is a cracked cockpit drain hose as the cause of mysterious bilge water.