Trying to solve the age-old Ericson problem of the center cockpit drains during winter.
I go a slightly different direction.... I cover the plates with "preservation tape" (I love that stuff!), which does an adequate job of sealing them, and then I close the thru-hull under the sink. Yeah, there's water in the hose all winter, but I figure /A/ if it freezes and cracks the hose it'll make a little mess but with the thru-hull closed it won't threaten the boat, and /B/ the water below the surface is generally warmer than the air around here in the winter, plus I have a heater going that keeps the space at least 50F all winter, so... the chances of that hose-full-of-salt-water freezing are fairly low.
On a related (?) aside.... I'm pondering a possible reconfiguration of my cockpit drain system.
At present, they're set up like this: (sorry for the crude diagram)
The outboard drains are connected to the same-side thru-hull under the counter. Which means that at some angles of heel (20 degrees shown here), the outboard drains are below the waterline, and water comes up into the footwell. Not a huge problem, but a little annoying.
I understand the original configuration was that those outboard drains connected to the opposite-side thru-hull. Which would solve the problem of water coming in through the drain, but effectively make the drains useless in normal conditions - when heeled, the opposite-side thru-hull would be uphill from the drain, so water in the cockpit wouldn't flow out.
I'm planning to replace all the hoses, and thinking about connecting things differently...
-- plumbing the outboard drains through a tee to the below-the-sink thru-hull. The thru-hull would always be downhill of the drain, so water in the cockpit would flow out. Water *might* be able to come in when heeled, because the outboard drain would be below the effective waterline. Not sure. I *may* be able to mitigate that by raising the tee under the cockpit floor to keep it above the heeled waterline.
-- plumbing the inboard drains to the same-side thru-hulls under the counter. Should always be above the waterline, and if the water-level in the cockpit is that high the short/straight run to the thru-hull should help it drain pretty quickly.
I can't think of another way to plumb the outboard drains so that they drain - AND don't let water back-flow up into the cockpit - when the boat is heeled to a point where the drain-plate is below the waterline....
Thoughts?