Must share this experience story - engine overheating

[RV61]

As it is said things go wrong the worst possible moment . The admiral and I were about a 1/4 mile out from dockage  when an impending storm arrived a bit early creating 6 foot Lake Erie chop waves and wind gusts of 40 plus when the engine water temp gauge shot up just above 180 degrees and she usually runs at 160 to 165. I  shut the engine down and noted we were drifting away from shore so no need to throw the hook and had the admiral take the helm  as I was headed for the water intake seacock and strainer for the engine. Pulled the strainer and found we picked up some sea  weed and cleaned it and put back on fired the engine back up and the temp was back to 160. Breathing relief started back toward our destination when the temp shot back up. So we shut her down again and went back down pulled the strainer this time with the seacock open to discover that it was clogged. Pulled out a coat hanger and tried to remove the obstruction to no avail. I could not get a good grip on the stainer with the channel locks to remove to get a better angle for the coat hanger. Then thought well I would just put the intake hose on the head sink drain however the nipple was to large to take the hose even with some trimming.  The head intake was not going to fit either from my vantage point at the time.  In the mean time the weather and seas were getting worse and I was getting tossed around the head and not able to get anything done when I started to think where else can i find water. Two answers came to mind the lake and the water tanks. Not having enough spare hose to run to the lake
I pulled out a bucket and filled with water from the sink faucet/shower and put the water intake  hose in the bucket to start sucking the water at what seemed 2 gallons per minute. I calculated we still had at least forty gallon left and enough to get us to safe harbor.
What was calming was there were many boaters close by and in radio contact and when we came in there were 6 people waiting for us as we docked and the storm was staring to hit its peak. Once  tucked in a fellow C34 owner came over and we removed the strainer and put the cork screw part of the coat hanger down thru the seacock and removed the obstruction  until we had the obstruction cleared out. The Storm cleared and had a fabulous pot luck dinner aboard with 4 other fellow sailors as the sun was setting.
What I learned was one can never learn to much about their boat and have a a back up plan. I will now have an adapter to put the water intake on the sink drain seacock if ever we run into the same situation.

[Stu Jackson]

Rick

Glad you made it.  Having a backup plan (or two) is a great idea.  You may also want to consider an old idea that's still around:  replumbing your raw intake so that it goes to a T with a plug in the T inline with the trhu hull; if the thru hull gets blocked, just take the top of the T off, and use the coat hanger trick straight through, might be easier.  I believe Tom Soko on the C36 site has a picture of his.  I'll try to find it for you, but it was written up in our tech notes about two years after Columbus landed.  Either way, congratulations and thanks for the great story (and even better ending!).

[Ron Hill]

Rick : NEVER leave the dock without a foot long 3/8" wooden dowel.  When the hydrilla and sea grass were at their worst, I installed a strainer on the outside of the raw water intake.  To make sure that if "all went to pot" I could knock that strainer off(from the inside) I used 4 dabs of caulk to hold it in place.  Since I installed that $5 round strainer I've NEVER had a stoppage in the past 12 years. 
I've written this up in the Mainsheet tech notes.  That strainer is still in place - don't forget to use bottom paint on the inside and outside of that strainer!!

I also can adapt to the head intake and or the sink drain.
 
BTW, another way to "blow out" a thru hull is to connect the dink foot pump to it and PUMP. 
A few thoughts.   

[Jeff_McKinney]

Rick,

Great recovery under terrible conditions. Glad you got back OK.

[captran]

another option that we tried under similar circumstances- we wrapped a cloth around our dingy air pump (a tube type pump) and held it up to the seacock hose and gave it a hard pump and the seaweed in there popped out instantly.

[David Sanner]

All interesting ideas and techniques.  Here's another thought...

If there was a T  (normally capped)  in the intake line after the strainer that could
be quickly connected to fresh water the pressurized water would likely clear
the clog (with the engine stopped) by forcing fresh water back through
the thru hull ... or if the impeller is failing it might even just provide enough
pressure to pump through for short term fresh water cooling.

And with the T there's a nice connection point to winterize your boat.

Now thinking of this idea and actually implementing it are quite different things.
Fortunately sea grass & weeds have only plugged my intake once but it
would be good to have a backup plan ahead of time, even if it is just
slipping off the cold water hose and having an adaptor/union to connect
it to the intake hose or directly onto the strainer to force out a clog.
A one foot 3/8" dowel seems pretty easy too  ;)


btw: the hardware store sells inflatable bladders that connect to your garden hose.
I had a really bad clog one time and it was the only thing that would work.  Just slip
the bladder into an open drain and turn on the water.  The bladder swells and seals
the pipe and then the rest of the water forces the clog through the drain.