Seacock Strainers

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Lance Jones

How many of you saltwater sailors have strainers installed over your seacock intakes? If you do, on which intakes are they installed?

Thanks in advance?
Lance Jones
1988  C-34 Kitty's Cat
S/N 622

Ed Shankle

Just on the engine raw water intake.
Ed Shankle
Tail Wind #866 1989 m25xp
Salem, MA

ghebbns

Same for me - just the raw water intake.
1990 C34 #1040
M 25XP

Kevin Henderson

Ditto.. Raw water intake only.  :abd:

Inquiring minds need to know... Why do you ask?    :think

Other than some owners having the sea water intake for the foot pump in the galley (many have converted to fresh water), I would see no need to have a filter on a seacock for anything being an "out take" to the sea.   :abd:
The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective.
~Henry David Thoreau

Lance Jones

For the inquiring minds... :D
I will be moving to saltwater from freshwater. I don't have a strainer/screen externally mounted on the outside of the hull. My air conditioner instructions say they recommend one for the water intake. So, I was wondering if anyone has some insight into where they should be located.
Lance Jones
1988  C-34 Kitty's Cat
S/N 622

TonyP

Lance

I would follow Mainsails advice and NOT fit an external strainer as they will foul (unseen) with growth, paint or debris.
There is a link on this site for pics on his site as well as an explanation.
Just a Forspar or similar strainer internally is the way to go. Easy to clean and maintain whenever you are on your boat.

cheers
Tony
Tony Plunkett
C34 Moonshadow
1992  Hull#1174
Pittwater / Newport
NSW Australia

Kevin Henderson

The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective.
~Henry David Thoreau

Stu Jackson

Quote from: TonyP on January 27, 2014, 12:29:11 PM
I would follow Mainsails advice and NOT fit an external strainer as they will foul (unseen) with growth, paint or debris.
There is a link on this site for pics on his site as well as an explanation.

It's in the "101 Topics" sticky.
Stu Jackson, C34 IA Secretary, #224 1986, "Aquavite"  Cowichan Bay, BC  Maple Bay Marina  SR/FK, M25, Rocna 10 (22#) (NZ model)

"There is no problem so great that it can't be solved."

r_bond

Hi Lance - we have strainers on engine raw water and air conditioning intake.  Both are internal.

Rusty
"Trinity", 1993
1993 C34
Hull # 1261
Wing Keel, Std. Rig

Kevin Henderson

Sorry Lance... I should have read your orioginal post more closely. 
Just to clarify... my raw water intake filter (strainer) is internal.  NOT!!! external to the seacock.   :abd:
The sail, the play of its pulse so like our own lives: so thin and yet so full of life, so noiseless when it labors hardest, so noisy and impatient when least effective.
~Henry David Thoreau

Ken Juul

Agree....internal only.  It can be a pain, the AC strainer always clogs at 3am during august when the nettles are everywhere, but easy enough to clean.  Build up has been a problem this year.  All the strainers just unscrew off the thru hulls.  I carry one of those long Aluminium gutter nails in the tool box, if flow slows down, unscrew and use the nail to clean from the inside.  Ron prefers a piece of dowel...either works.  If the outside grill clogs you are going swimming to clear.
Ken & Vicki Juul
Luna Loca #1090
Chesapeake Bay
Past Commodore C34IA

Ron Hill

Lance : I've posted this many times before.
I've had 3 stoppages from hydrilla and sea grass in the past 25 years.  They were all in the first 10 of those 25 years.
 
Then I caulked a simple round bronze strainer on the outside of the hull for the engine raw water intake.  In the past 15 years NO Problem.  I said caulked as I could take the strainer assembly off and open the thru hull and poke the strainer off the hull - if necessary. 

To date it has never been necessary as no clogs!!  You be the judge.  A thought                                                       
Ron, Apache #788

Lance Jones

Thanks all! Good info. I like Ron's suggestion as it offers a good compromise. As I will be in Florida waters, any Florida members have experience with or without strainers?
Lance Jones
1988  C-34 Kitty's Cat
S/N 622

John Sheehan

Lance,

Rusty who responded earlier, and I both live in Gulf Breeze, FL.  near Pensacola.  Like Rusty, I just have the internal strainers for the engine cooling and the A/C unit.  So far (11 years and 11,000 km) I have never had any problems with the inlets plugging.  There have been numerous times where the strainers would get full of sea grass and need to be cleaned, but that can be done from inside the boat.  The pictures that Mainsail showed are very similar to ones I have seen here with external strainers.  My suggestion would be to not worry about an external strainer and just keep the internal ones clean.  If that doesn't work then you can always add an external one later.

Looking forward to meeting you when you get down here.

John
John Sheehan
Sea Shell
2003 MKII  # 1642
Gulf Breeze, FL

jgatherton

Lance,
Engine raw water intake, AC water intake and cockpit salt water wash down connection (as it was before we moved to the lake!)