Precip as seen at a distance. .Clogs in your deck drains can prevent rain water from getting off the boat. Friends of mine with a Mainship 390 like ours had a flood in their salon because this deck drain clogged <above>. It is midship on the starboard side by the lower helm sliding door.
Above, you can see the end of a fender whip which could potentially combine with other debris to cause a clog.
On the port side (shown above) there is no midship drain. All the rain water from up forward comes gushing down this walkway to the port quarter deck drain.It is common for us to store a boat hook, broom handle, cleaning brush handle, etc. in the corners of our aft deck. Unfortunately, they can easily be bumped into the precarious position shown below!Unfortunately, a cleaning brush handle was impeding the flow of heavy rainwater trying to exit the boat. During the very heavy thunderstorm this past week this cleaning brush handle could have sunk our boat! The square feet of rain collection during a severe downpour was more than the aft bilge pump could keep up with.
Fortunately we were aboard.
Unfortunately we did not know the aft deck was flooding, and we also did not know that water was making its way into our aft bilge thru a lazarette cover.
Fortunately, we installed a bilge alarm in the aft bilge!
Water WAS gushing down the port walkway from up forward. There were several inches of water on the aft deck by the [clogged] drain.
I moved the boat hook and broom handles from the corner. Water started to forcefully exit the scupper.
The upper “sun deck” drains down inside that vertical support pipe, so keeping that scupper and the drains clear is also critical.
Keep all drains clean and clear of “things” that might block them!
After a big wax and detailing job, double check for rags and paper towels that may be hiding. They could easily be washed down a drain hole and cause a clog.
