TomCat deck drainage issue FINALLY SOLVED

[Captain Starbucks]

Fellow TomCat owners, or anyone else that is victim to owning a boat with a "self bailing deck" that doesn't actually bail, I think I've finally come up with a solution.

I've manufactured a flapper door that has a built in hinge. These can be made in any size via a 3D printer. Hinge pin in this prototype is .45" stainsless welding rod.

This is still in the design phase. I've not actually put it to test yet, but see no reason why it shouldn't work.

[C-Wolfe]

Please keep us posted.
One of my rubber flapper is missing, the other is just about to go. I figured new one of the original design would not be a big improvement over not having anything covering the opening, at least on my boat and the way I use it.

[ssobol]

[DaveInRI]

I used something similar on a small trailer sailer, sold by T-H Marine who also sells the ping pong style and duck bill sock style. There are other hinged ones for purchase in stainless steel by other companies. I didn’t find the operation of the hinged version any better than the rubber flappers which curl out and I’d just flip over to curl inward every other season. I didn’t want to listen to ping pong balls at anchor nor did I want crud clogging up the duck bill. True self bailing boat scuppers are big enough to fit your head through and are just open without scuppers, these are for rain and rinse down hoses etc, not emergency bailing. Have fun with the tinkering, it’s a big part of what makes boating a well rounded hobby!

[Donald Tyson]

Dave: I had the ping pong style on the 24' Carolina Skiff and loved them. They never needed cleaning...ever. I never heard them either. Is it because that, being an open boat, there were too many other noises bloctting out the ball noise. Though they were dependable they were not large. IMHO I felt that, should I experience a catastrophic flooding, they would never keep up with the drainage.
So Dave In Rhode Island I ask, if you can, please explain how "true self bailing scuppers could be employed in a CD hull. I can imagine rounding point Judith in a small boat, getting careless as I head in and taking a washer over the stern rail. And though I've never done that the potential was always there and my little pingpong scuppers would not have done much to help in the short time.
I realize its a worst case scenario but I have always wondered why more boats don't have those big scuppers like many DownEast boats have.

Captain Starbucks, Nice work, really, keep us posted, but is there a place for longer ones (oblong) on these boats? I't may be nice in a squall line to have bigger scuppers.

[DaveInRI]

Hi, Donald. I used to have a Com-Pac brand Sun Cat sailboat and when it came time to replace my scuppers, I sought advice from the Com-Pac owners group (CBrats for Com-Pacs). The consensus was that ping pong ones worked great-- the water coming up from the back pushed them closed and kept them closed-- unless you tried to sleep on the boat, which many owners did. Then, with weight in the cabin up front, the scuppers in the rear were not at-waterline or slightly submerged, and so the gentle waves lapping up and against them made the balls touch/close, then open, touch/close, then open, -- tap tap tap all night long-- to the point a few described eagerly ripping them out. So, I never bothered because I didnt need the tell tale heart on my boat, ha.

These small flap scuppers are self-bailing for when the boat is at anchor, on a mooring, in a slip, etc.. My Duxbury Dory skiff had no scuppers, just a deck-mounted bilge pump (facing straight down) and I was one dead battery away from a sunken boat in a rainstorm when it was at the dock. The Sun Cat never had water in it as it would drain behind via the flap scuppers, but the dory always had 2" or so in the corner below the pump's float switch (you dont want too low a switch or youll run your battery out faster)-- so most times using it began with a big orange sponge. (And the Picnic Cat, which I owned before, was so light the scuppers would be under water with more than 1 person in it, so us owners would plug them from the inside to keep our feet dry). Similar reporting on the Rosborough RF-246 earlier models, the 1990s and the later low-sided ones. Scuppers were raised later to prevent wet feet, as the eventual use became heavy laden cruising and the design needed to accommodate.

So, be happy you don't need a bilge pump and battery voltmeter, and can take vacations with your boat in the water without really worrying about it, but yeah, I'm of the mind "the best bailer is a scared sailor and a bucket". Even when you get into the Gallons Per Hour of some heavy duty bilge pumps, do the napkin math of volume of a cube and the back of the boat, and you'll realize you're never gonna get there. All boats like these are one good stern pooping away from being a newspaper article. All the more reason to keep the motor weight light so these things lift up closer to their design heritage before the dory stern was chopped for outboards. That's also why I like the line, "it's better to be in, wishing you were out, than out, wishing you were in!"

But I'm all for the necessity is the mother of invention, and applaud anyone using their brain to build a better mousetrap.

[Donald Tyson]

I am impressed generally with the quality ingenuity and experience of this whole group.

[thataway]

Dave, I believe that you would be amazed by how rapidly the semi dory hull lifts with stern breaking waves. The only cases I am aware of a C Dory being swamped was caught in a surf line, or anchored by the stern. I have been in some seas with a 25 that I swear were going to break over the transom,, and yet they don't...The large splash well certainly helps there.

My dad's sailboat did get some good sized waves--perticularly heeled over and the old "Tuna Clippers" out of San Pedro put out a high wake, and would come over the side decks and combing. There was a well for the outboard motor, and about 4" for the outboard to clamp on, if the motor was in--and the majority of the water would run out of that well, the rest out of 1" scuppers.