Deck Drain plan 20 Center Console

[JW-Tex]

My 1969 20 CC has a solid original deck. I will be eliminating the motor splash well and adding deck in its place. I plan on putting a well at the transom (maybe 2 gallons) that will sit below the deck level and have a bilge pump in it. My plan is for water on the deck to end up in the well and when the well is 1/4 full the auto bilge pump to kick on and drain it.

Additionally, I will put two large thru hulls in the transom about 2 inches above the deck (I will check the waterline prior to installing). My plan is that if I took a big wave the water will exit via the two thru hulls and bilge pump in the well.

The boat will be trailred. Please provide input on this plan positive or negative.

[Mark]

Hi JW,

Everybody approaches the too-low floor thing differently with these boats, but several aspects of your plan somewhat concern me:

First, the two large thru-hulls (scuppers?) you mention are going to be 2" above the floor. My feable mind interprets this to mean that water would be 2" deep in the boat before those would come into play (yes, I know there is a pump down in that well, but still...). I also eliminated the splash well in my 20'CC and could not be happier with that decision by the way.

Secondly, most of us with 20's consider them "trailer boats" and rarely leave them in the water for extended periods. However, on the odd occasion when you MAY wish to leave the boat in the water, what happens when the rain keeps filling that well and the battery for the pump finally gives out - are all the other access points through the deck sealed so that the water will be OK at 2" deep across the deck and not leak into the bilge?

While the original scuppers in my '71 were completely ineffective when standing still in the water, they would drain the deck while moving. While I don't have any great solutions to recommend if you wish to leave the original floor at the current height, I have some reservations about the proposed method of draining the boat that you detail [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

Have you tried those ping-pong ball things to see if that would work in a normal scupper-thru-transom setup??

[FELLOW-SHIP]

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Fellowship [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[FELLOW-SHIP]

Woops I forgot to put the page in.

http://forum.classicseacraft.com/sho...prev=#Post2916


FellowShip

[JW-Tex]

Boat is a project that had no transom when I bought it...one drain fitting on the deck is on the port side of the rear storage hatch leads into the bilge but not sure where the original thru hull was. So ping pong ball stopers are not an option at this point because the boat has never been in the water. The large thru hull scuppers I mention would be above the deck and above the waterline with a safety margin (not necesarily 2 inches...could be less). I have no hatches in my deck at all so the deck should be fairly water tight. Again the floor of the boat will reamin dry only if I take water onto the deck from a wave should the deck have a large amount of water on it. In the case of taking a wave would immediatley get under way raise the bow and drain through the thru hulls and bilge pump in the below deck level well. I will also have 2 additonal bilge pumps in the bilge, one on a second battery as a reserve.

[strick]

Most of the guys here with 20's will raise their deck 2 inches in order to make them self bailing. Dont count on any deck being water tight because sooner or later standing water will find it's way into the bilge. Your going to want water to leave the deck ASAP so that means your thru hulls/scuppers should be a deck level. Anything else is second rate.

Strick