I’m not happy with my current inlet hose for sea water to the raw water pump. You can see from the (badly sketched) picture below what I’m dealing with.



Carver put the seacock just slightly to port from center and the pump is a little further to starboard from center. It used a molded hose (which I can’t identify) from the seacock to position “X” where the was a bronze coupler and from there to the water pump was a corrugated rubber hose that made the 180 degree bend. It kinked easily although I never seemed to have any overheating. The molded hose had seen better days as well, so I decided to replace them.

I got two hoses that fit from an auto-parts store but they are radiator hoses, probably upper ones as there is no coiled wire inside to prevent collapsing. I doubt they would collapse under normal use, but when I flushed the system with fresh water from my garden hose, it couldn’t keep up above an idle and I saw the seacock hose collapse. I also used a PCV coupler as the bronze one wouldn’t fit. I’m not sure why that was as everything seemed to be 1, ¼” hose. I don’t trust the PVC as it may degrade due to temperature extremes when the boat is stored for the winter.

Looking at the sketch, points “A” to “B” is in the horizontal plane and from “C” to “D” is in the vertical plane. “X” is where the coupler is.

Is there suction hose available that is flexible to make all these bends? Is there a 1, ¼” 180 barbed bronze U-tube to make the 180 degree bend? Should I replace the straight barbed fitting on the seacock with a 90 degree barbed fitting? Basically, I am open to any suggestions that doesn’t involve moving the seacock.

Any thoughts? Thank-you.