Ville123

Hi,
I am replacing my side vents because they are dented etc, but when doing it I started wondering how the housings should be. Mine are installed so most of the vent holes are empty and facing downwards, so in case a wave hits the boat there, etc. then all the water will go straight through the louvres and to the bilge. I have 6 vents (CC Stinger 260), thereby 12 holes in the housings, and only two have ventilation pipes going to the blowers, rest are just empty.

Are the housings supposed to be installed like this, or should I perhaps turn them around (holes facing upwards), so less risk of water getting in? Or was there more piping originally installed?
Any opinions?

All the best,
Ville

speicher lane

I may be misunderstanding your description but any stingers I seen had a louvered type of vent (3 per side) with the front vent facing forward and the mid and aft vent facing to the stern. Being perfectly honest, can't say if they were factory original or replaced but in keeping with the pic below

Ville123

Hi, yeah you understand correctly about the vent grilles (I have similar), but my confusion is about the housings that are behind these grilles. They look something like this, and the open holes are pointing downwards, and my confusion is that should they point downwards, and should there be any piping connected to them. My logic dictates that if the grille gets hit with water, and the water gets inside the housing (which it will certainly), then it will just slosh easily to the bilge, through the holes. In my case on top of the batteries etc.

Ville123

I had actually the same problem with my previous boat, four winns horizon while ago, it had the same system, also open holes pointing downwards. Because on that boat the louvres were on top of the swim platform I actually got water inside from there during a stormy ride. On that boat i switched the housings so the holes point upwards. But this time I thought to do a bit research (maybe I´m doing something wrong) before doing the same mod on my new boat

speicher lane

On that note, I would have the front housing facing up as it takes more effort for water to get into the engine bay going up and over but the rear vents withe the blower vents obviously need to be situated so the blower hose can be fixed facing down... This is assuming the vent housing have clearance to fit in the cut outs either way... if there is no room for the housing to fit with the holes to the top, it's a moot point but even facing up, it will get water in the bilge if the seas are dishing out.