Scubbers from West Marine?

[kenjamin]

Has anyone gotten their scubbers from West Marine? Which ones did you choose? I know nothing about scubbers but they had some that worked with gravity and were only about $15 each. They also had some that had a ball in a cage that looked like they would work but I just don't know. I know the plans call for a specific type but I was wondering if there are some at West Marine that were inexpensive, would work just as well, and I could pick them up next time I'm in the local store. Thanks in advance, kenjamin

[Editors]

Hi Kenjamin,

The original design calls for venturi-type bailers to be located down in the little pocket sumps at the transom. However, after the capsize testing, where we discovered that even in the case of a total inverted capsize SCAMP doesn't ship much water at all, we dropped the idea of including them on the prototype.

Venturi bailers are still a good option, as once SCAMP is moving, they'd pump out any incidental water that made its way aboard, and they're good for opening up when you want to hose out and clean the boat on her trailer. However they've also got some drawbacks—not the least of which is their expense.

We've since installed small thru-transom drains above the sumps, but they have screw-in plugs and we only use them for cleaning purposes (or if the boat were to be left on the trailer where the cockpit could get rain).

I think Mike Monies has a single thru-transom scupper—one with a flap on the outside, if I recall correctly. Maybe he or Jackie will comment on how successful that has been. —Eds

[Monies]

Mike says the single drain does not work well. With two people on board it is below water line and water leaks into the cockpit. He has been blocking it when under sail, just using it to drain boat or wash or if trailering and it is raining.

He just walked thru office and said if he were doing it again he would use two drains as Josh did with stoppers. He said this would work better and he will probably fill in the drain hole he has now and put in two.

Incidently on importance of drain holes, while enroute to the Everglades Challenge two years ago with the Laguna Dos which has huge cockpit open and capable of holding lots of water Mike hit heavy rain on I-10. It filled with water so fast he had to keep stopping and bailing it out, pumping out water.

He brought it back and stuck it in back yard to do repainting, repairs after the EC and we got hit with a huge storm, dropped 10 inches of water and flash flooding in no time at all. The Laguna was high on saw horses but wind tore tarps to shreds. She filled almost to the gunwales/gunnels with water and there was still no drain to let water out.

By the time storms let up after about 5 hours she had been holding all that water in the open hull. You can guess what pressure did to Mike's seams. The Scamp is stored in a boat warehouse now but he won't build a no drain boat again.

Jackie Monies (for Mike)

[kenjamin]

Thanks Jackie (and SCA editors) for the information. Been there and done that with the "no drain" boat and will definitely have effective drains or scubbers on my SCAMP. I was just wondering if West Marine sold any that would serve well for the SCAMP as I seem to be in their store often and it would be easy to pick them up there. I just don't know which ones to use of those that they offer. My Caledonia Yawl has about five different compartments that have to be bailed when it rains if she's on the trailer. I can think of one night in particular when I was trailering her from Florida to the Mystic WoodenBoat Show and it rained like crazy all night. I had to get out in the parking lot in the middle of the night to bail Xena out. It cured me permanently from omitting the master drain system. Thanks again for the information.

[simeoniii]

Kenjamin,

What we finally did on SCAMP #1 (as refered to in Monies response above), was to install a drain on either side aft in the scupper wells on B-8, the stern transom.

We used Ronstan RF294 24mm Drain Plug Complete, purchased from West Marine. I think their item# was 283756. You probably want to pick up a pair of extra removable plugs for spares. When SCAMP returned from a recent trailer road trip, one on the plugs was missing. Below are some photos of installation.

[kenjamin]

In studying the problem it seems that my customizing my SCAMP for fishing has another bonus in that I could probably install drains into my inboard motorwell. This will place them lower in the boat than on the transom. I'm still entertaining the use of scubbers rather than drains but for my purposes drains would probably do fine. Thanks for the information. I appreciate your help. And believe me I need all the help I can get.