Raw water manifold for safety?

[a64pilot]

Yanmar makes exceptions to manufacturers at times. For example one Hunter uses a 4JHE with an exhaust hose smaller than Yanmar allows, but obviously it’s OK in that installation.

[accomplice]

Our Tayana 58 has three manifolds/strainers/seacocks- two for input and one (with a vented top, no strainer) for output. Each has about 6-8 ball valves out controlling flow to different consumers of raw water (air conditioning, auxiliary propulsion, water maker, genset, washdown pump, frig condenser, etc). This works well, but with a few issues:
- In bumpy seas sometimes the forward intake sucks air and needs to be bled
- Although the individual consumers each have ball valves, there is also a massive seacock on the through hull. If not exercised regularly, these large ball valves can get very stuck.
- damaged custom strainers are not cheap to replace.

I like this approach not only because there are fewer throughulls, but also because the large (3 inch?)throughulls never get clogged which could require going swimming to check and clear. The strainers can be cleaned from belowdecks, even while underway..