I've seen to many of these now that I have lost count. I am talking about gate valves. I spotted this one on the raw water intake on a boat that I surveyed the other day. I could have almost used this as a 'whats wrong with this picture' type competition. What you can't tell from the photo is that the valve was frozen open and thus would not close in an emergency. What you can see is that the hose clamps are not at 180 degrees to each other and that the bonding consists of uninsulated single strand copper clamped under a pipe clamp. I advised the owner to remove the gate valve and replace it with a proper sea-cock. If one of the Marelon sea-cocks is used then bonding becomes unnecessary and furthermore it is possible to see at a glance whether or not the valve is open or closed.
As this is about the time that many of us are getting our boats ready for the coming season I urge you to make sure that your sea-cocks are of the correct type and in working condition. Given that one of the major insurance claims is for boats sinking through failed or leaking sea-cocks it makes sense to check them carefully.
Incidentally here is a Marelon sea-cock on the same boat used for a salt water intake for the wash down pump. This is better but the backing pad is a little small, the hose is badly kinked and there is only one pipe clamp on the hose.
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