Open or closed seacock

[Chief Engineer]

When I Leave my boat it is always closed

When I leave my boat it is always open

What's a seacock?

[Joli]

Always closed when not aboard.

As other have told me, my boat can sink.

[rwhit323]

Some boats I have owned had no choice as to deck drains from cockpit were via seacocks. To close them would fill cockpit with H20 in downpour. However my preference is to always close seacocks when not in use.

[2Hulls]

Which through-hull valve are you talking about?

I answered assuming it was the engine cooling inlet > I never close either one of them.

If flooding occurred in my engine rooms due to an open through hull, they would only flood about 10 inches, be confined to the engine rooms, and the rest of the boat wouldn't know the difference. I'll take this risk to avoid the risk of forgetting to open them before I start the engines.

As for other through-hull valves, I always close them.

Dave

[Chief Engineer]

Engine thru-hull

[Sandero]

I do leave the engine intake and prop shaft lubrication open except when I am gone for a ling time.

I am going to replace a bunch of them next haul out.

[theonecalledtom]

Open and close each time to make sure it keeps moving. No key on my boat so thinking of locking wheel in place with a bike lock and putting key over seacock to ensure I remember to open it as needed....

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by theonecalledtom

Open and close each time to make sure it keeps moving. No key on my boat so thinking of locking wheel in place with a bike lock and putting key over seacock to ensure I remember to open it as needed....

I close the seacock b/c my raw water strainer is below the water line. I also take the key to start the engine and place it on the seacock handle. I have to remember to turn the seacock before I turn the engine on that way. I also close all the other thru hulls except for the ones that are above the waterline.

[Tempest245]

I close all seacocks onboard...when I leave the boat....except the two that serve the self draining cockpit....including the raw water intake to the engine.

Tempest

[donradcliffe]

As a liveaboard, I leave all the seacocks open unless I am leaving the boat for more than a day or two.

[Ex-Calif]

There is a raw water seacock on the saildrive under the cockpit sole that stays open all the time.

The head seacocks are closed except when the facility is in use.

[Lancerbye]

Having eight sea cocks, twin engines and a generator, watermaker.etc. and being lived aboard, some sea cocks are mostly closed except when needed, others are mostly opened except when being left for more than a few hours. No simple answer.

[miss-m]

I said 'always shut', but that's if we're leaving her for a day or more. Anything less than that and we dont shut them- this is for our toilet sea cocks and the sinks. We have two sea cocks on our engine (one for water inlet, one on the exhaust to prevent water seeping back in) and these are ALWAYS shut if the engine is not in use. The second we turn the engine off, we shut them off. The one time we didnt, we spent ages trying to clear our flooded engine- oops!!

[Wotname]

Cockpit drain seacocks are always open except for a open/shut test a couple of times a year.
All other seacocks (engine, galley, head) are always shut unless item is actually in use.

[GordMay]

I cannot recall anything, on our boat, that was “always” anything.
As others have indicated (as live-aboards) our seacocks were mostly left open during routine daily absences; but closed (excepting cockpit drains) for extended absences.