T&T: Cowl vents, water traps and dorade boxes

[Bob Clinkenbeard]

Today while continuing on with the repair of my boat, I had to remove two 
circa 1993 Nicro cowl vents with water traps http://tinyurl.com/yonr8f from 
the front deck.  They vent the rope locker and head.
While removing them from the deck, the water traps literally disintegrated 
in my hands.  These traps are designed to automatically close off water 
intrusion of a large quantity.  Besides being completely blocked with mud 
daubers....they would have failed miserably.  I did like them because you 
could manually close them off from inside.

I started searching for new ones of the same brand thinking maybe..14 years 
was fair service..I found that they are now either backordered or 
discontinued.  Maybe Marinco/Nicro has removed them from the market for some 
reason?

I really wanted to replace them with stainless steel cowls and some kind of 
water trap or dorade box that would fit where mine were removed.....no 
luck...lots of ss cowls but only large wooden or fiberglass dorade boxes 
available.  I wonder why no one makes a ss compact water trap for the ss 
cowls?

So...I found one Manufacturer (Plastimo) that makes something that will work 
as a replacement http://tinyurl.com/2e8dl8   They work about the same as the 
Nicro with the ability to close them off from the inside.  Looks like they 
have some UV protection and maybe they will last as long as the others?

Does anyone have any experience with Plastimo cowls w/water traps?

Note:  The Nicro water trap was the problem. It is rigid pvc and I'm sure UV 
caused the failure.  The cowls on both are also pvc but they are soft and 
flexible.  The original cowls were still pliable.



Bob Clinkenbeard
24' custom trailer trawler
http://home.bellsouth.net/p/PWP-aboardbobbinalong