close sea cock prior to beginning a tow

[bob daily]

Mr. Dan, Thank you for your knowledge and sharing it on this forum. The reason I was interested was due to fishing the Snake River, where it is common to anchor below the dam with a current flow above 5 to 6 kits, the lift would be enough to get to the exhaust elbow, you probably saved me from a potential problem!
Thank you, Bob

 

[iggy]

I think I will go to the local hardware store and have a small sign made up and mount it to the helm with this warming about towing. Like a 1" by 4" with 1/2" height letters. I know what will happen! I will be so upset that we broke down I WILL forget to close the seacock.

 

[rpmerrill]

We certainly couldn't be the only boatowners who (rightly or wrongly) be worried about this. If it was a real problem, TowBoat US would know about it, and I'd think they would warn you about it, first thing after they threw you a tow rope.

 

[ohioan55]

I'll share my thoughts on hull penetrations. First, my rule is basic, if it ain't used, close it. I've seen a lot of boats riding way too deep in the water over the years because owners had too much faith in what was behind the valve to keep the water out. Stuff fails when you least expect it. Stuff also happens when you least anticipate it. Some of this may come from my experience with/on submarines over the years. I've noticed that most hull penetrations can be somewhat easily reached on Ranger Tug (haven't crawled over every model yet), but it is one of the things I look at. I suppose I have an eye for the functional, whereas my wife will check out the wood work and fabrics (which are nice BTW). I also run my co-pilot (wife) through the most important parts of having a boat in the water (including hull valve locations. So, to sum it up, if it's in the water and not used, close it. If it's on the hard, keep them open, especially is subjected to freezing in the winter. Thanks for letting me opine on the subject.

 

[CaspersCruiser]

We certainly couldn't be the only boatowners who (rightly or wrongly) be worried about this. If it was a real problem, TowBoat US would know about it, and I'd think they would warn you about it, first thing after they threw you a tow rope.

When I got towed last year after the fuel pump failure, the TowBoatUS captain DID ask if I had all the seacocks closed.