| What is a dorade box?
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In simple terms, a dorade box, or collector
box, is intended to extract water from air intakes leading into the engine
or other compartment. Although sizes and shapes vary from boat to boat,
the principle is always the same. The Dorade Box is a single chamber system
with a baffle between the intake air supply and the interior space-air feed.
The baffle helps keep smaller water droplets from being carried through
by the incoming air. As a result, most of the water ingested through the
air intake drops to the bottom of the box and is drained away, either through
weepholes onto the deck, into the bilge, overboard through a dedicated vent
above the waterline, through the hull, or to a sump, to be automatically
pumped overboard.
This ventilation system was named after the yacht Dorade, which
was designed, navigated, and sailed by American naval architect James Stephens.
The Dorade was the winner of the 1931 Transatlantic and Fastnet races.
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