bertram31.com

Happy to have just acquired my first Bertram: a 1979 28 FBC. Previous owner had boat in the water all last season with no issues but I'm trying to sort everything out, make sure everything works, and learn what I can before launching this year.

I've owned and worked on a few boats before (wood and 'glass) but I've never seen an arrangement like this boat for the engine cooling seacocks. Each seacock (Port and Stbd) appears to be a "Y" valve with one leg of the "Y" connected to the thru-hull, the second leg to a jumper hose from port to stbd valves, and the center of the 'Y' plumbed to the inline strainer then the engine. From what I can tell one valve position feeds water from thru-hull to engine (makes sense) while the other position closes the thru-hull and connects engine to opposite valve?

Is this a 'factory' installed arrangement and if so, why? Or is it someone's idea after-the-fact? I can imagine the jumper hose could be disconnected and used for winterizing or as a crash valve (?) but seems 'jenky' as my son would say.

Thanks in advance for any comments and advice-

Pictures are worth a 1000 words...

With that said I dont know if that is orthodox or not but it sounds odd. Maybe a previous owner was worried about a clog of a strainer and could by-pass and use opposite side???

You could prob make use and have a crash valve setup or winterization access as you stated.

See what others say as they chime in, personally I never saw what you describe but that does not mean much.

Sounds like someone had crash valves, and Rube Goldberg Plumbing didn't understand what he was looking at and 'fixed' it.

mike ohlstein wrote: ↑Apr 30th, '21, 10:53 Sounds like someone had crash valves, and Rube Goldberg Plumbing didn't understand what he was looking at and 'fixed' it.

I ditto what Mike said, it was broke till he fixed it.

I have a 79 28 and it came from the factory with bronze gate valves on the thru-hulls.

Tooeez wrote: ↑May 3rd, '21, 17:58 I have a 79 28 and it came from the factory with bronze gate valves on the thru-hulls.

For quite a while that was what Bertram used on their boats. Not sure when Ball Valves became available.