Cockpit drainage

[cdefreit]

I've taken one or two waves/wakes over the bow since I've owned my boat, especially since I installed smarttabs and my bow stays much lower in the water. Nothing dangerous, but it has made me a bit nervous to take on large quantities of water. I always feel a bit vulnerable until that water gets pumped out.

Right now, the cockpit drains into the bilge, but I thought it might be a better idea to have the drain directly connected to a through hull fitting.

Instead of having water in the cockpit accumulate and slowly drain into the bilge before it can then be pumped out by the bilge pump, I figure why not skip the bilge and let it drain out by itself. I guess I won't be able to stop water entering the bilge via the ski locker.

Opinions? waste of time? not feasible in my type of boat?

Thanks

Collin
(2007 185 sport)

 

[Lazy Daze]

I think the cockpit floor is pretty close to water level. You could drill big holes, install cockpit fittings, install drain hose, install thru-hulls, install one-way valves through the transom...... get the idea?

Best thing is to avoid those big waves.

If those smart tabs don't allow you to trim the engine up and give it some throttle to raise the bow at slow speeds, I don't think I'd use them. If you're only ever out on a calm lake, no big deal. But I wouldn't want to lose the ability to get my bow up and over big waves if I had to.

If you were going, say at whatever 2,000rpms equals, could you trim it up and raise the bow significantly, or would those tabs prevent that even at that slow speed?