why do large boats have spouts near water level that continuously dump out water?
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Because boat motors are water cooled. What you’re seeing is the hot water being ejected from the engine as more cool was is sucked in. Boat engines cannot run dry and rely on the water for cooling.
While I’m not too familiar with boats, I do know that many use sea water for cooling the engine(s) that water is most often dumped out low and towards the rear of the boat.
Secondly what you could be seeing is the bulge pump at work, there’s a space between the deck, where you stand or sit, and the hull that can get water in it and will need to drained or pumped out, many larger boat use this area to help keep the ship balanced while at sea.
As I said I not very familiar with boats operates, so If anyone else knows more, and can add or correct anything I might stated please do
It’s a through hull port for many things, although what you’re observing sounds like a bilge pump.
Boats leak. They also (unless they’re quite large) use holding tanks for black water, but just dump sink or bathing water into the bilge, which is then pumped out the side.
The back of boats do this too, if it’s using a heat exchange water system to cool the engine. It sucks in water, cools the engine, then dumps it back outside.
Depending on the ship, some boats generate fresh water for drinking from sea water. They extract (this is a gross oversimpification) fresh water from sea water and then dump the rest (now saltier water) over board, its not needed any longer.
First of, a large boat is called a vessel.
Second, it is cooling water or ballast water you see.
For most parts is is properly cooling water, run by an electric sea water cooling pump through a cooler/radiator from where the internal cooling system is close looped with fresh water. You want for various reasons to be able to see that the cooling water is flowing, this being an outboard motor, a yacht or large commercial vessel.
If it is a tanker it might also be ballast water for easy checking of flow and cleanliness (you want to quickly observe any signs of contamination)
On the vessels I sail on the outlets are underwater, we observe the flow by pressure instead
Source: navigational officer in major container carrier company
Couple reasons. Most boats use the water they’re in for engine coolant. It’s sucked in through a port in the hull, run through a radiator, then dumped out the back. This is why jet skis have that big plum of water coming out the back. Big ships do this too. Presumably it saves weight, since the vehicle doesn’t need to carry dedicated coolant around. Even small RC boats cool their motors and electronics this way.
Other reasons. Some of it is ballast water. Large vessels have tanks in the hull that are filled or emptied to keep the ship trimmed and stable. Sometimes it’s bilge water. All boats with an internal engine will leak to an extent, as water gets into the tube that holds the prop shaft. This has to be pumped out periodically. Though it’s usually not done close to shore, since that water contains grease and other debris. Sometimes it’s good old sewage or grey water. Again though, this usually isn’t done close to shore.
Not sure about “large boats”, but ships use seawater for cooling engines, generators, and some combat systems on Navy ships.
Lost of larger boats that have prop shafts through the hull have seals that constantly seep a bit of water, bilge pump clears it out as it builds up
Even small boats do this, though you won’t often notice it as its external to the boat coming straight from the engine on small craft. In fact when testing a boat engine out on land they need to provide water.
For a smaller boat it’s often a thing that looks kinda like earmuffs with a hose attached. The earmuff part goes over the engine’s water intake, the hose is turned on and voila water cooled engine on land.
Even small boats do this. Instead of the water shooting out the side of the boat it will instead shoot out the back of the motor.
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