I am getting serious about sailing my boat. Hooray I hear you all say.
Anyway, my anchor locker will not drain. There is a white tube in a recess in the bottom of the locker. I am guessing that there should be a drain cover or grille?
Is there a safe way to unblock what I assume is a tube leading to the through hull?
Thank you
There is usually no grate over the inside anchor locker drain. It just drains through the hose attached and out the tru-hull on starboard side at the waterline. Check it out from inside the V-berth. The hose may be clogged. Remove the and/or snake out with a small plumbing snake from putside or inside of boat. Also check the integrity of hose and thru-hull, they may need to be replaced due to age. Thru-hull is most likely nylon and degrades with UV exposure and gets brittle/breaks. Here is a link to my recent replacement.
See reply #22
http://c34.org/bbs/index.php/topic,9777.msg74542.html#msg74542
On our C34 MkII we also had some mud chunks get in the way of adequate drainage. I had to clear things out and literally get to the bottom of things. We then did put a grate in the bottom to help keep the rode up and prevent it from slowing drainage. When I accessed the space below (from the forward cabin), I found that our hose had a slight dip in it before exiting out through the thru-hull. I couldn't shorten the tubing to get the dip out since the real issue was that the outlet was put in just a bit too high relative to the underside of the locker. So we just made sure to adequately flush the locker after every anchor raising, and check on the starboard side to ensure that we saw the water coming out.
Another thing to watch out for, if your boat had been out of the water for a while is to check all your thru-hull fitting before going into the water for wasp/bee nests or other insect homes.
Look at that hose from under the V-birth to see if it has a dip or kink in it. Probably easiest to snake it out from a Dink or while swimming in the water.
A few thoughts
I have found it necessary on a couple of occasions to remove all chain and anchor line, scoop out a handful of mud and trash, and then use a hose to blow it out from outside. Rinse and repeat.
Albion : If you don't have an anchor rode/chain washer, then get one or cleaning out the drain will be a constant job.
I wrote up a Mainsheet tech note article where I adapted a bilge pump and hose for wash down. Works great and it could also be used to empty a dink after a rain storm or wash off the deck after shredded leaves from a hurricane. Many other uses!!
A few thoughts