I broke a thru hull fitting off in the marina

[ttex]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Your experience underlines the need for through hull bungs to be lashed to their respective through hulls, AFTER checking to see if they fit. Keeping them in a bag "down there somewhere" is poor practice! But you know that now, don't you!

Good luck with the replacement.

Jim

Yes, sir.

You couldn't be more right.

[captmick39]

Originally Posted by ttex

I recently bought the boat a couple of months ago. The only thing I installed in this picture is the pen!

I will be doing a lot of research and I will do it right. I assure you.

Just a thought...
IF You're going to haul it out anyway, I'd inspect EVERY thru-hull fitting? Given that this was an 'aftermarket' update, beefier will always be better, add opening those seacocks to the pre-startup checklist, & most all of Your original fittings are probably fine. The "PEN" Was an excellent addition. Whatever keeps the water OUTSIDE the boat was a PERFECT Choice!

[jibstay]

I replaced a thru-hull in the water. Stuff a piece of foam or sponge into the new mushroom fitting. Put a thick bead of 5200 fast cure around the mushroom fitting, let it sit long enough to get a bit of a skin. Dive down and push it in, while someone grabs it from inside and installs the nut finger-tight. Put the ball valve on finger-tight, then close it. Wait a few hours and tighten the nut and the ball valve.

[ttex]

Originally Posted by captmick39

Just a thought...
IF You're going to haul it out anyway, I'd inspect EVERY thru-hull fitting?

I had already given all the fittings a good tug to test them out but I just didn't see this one. That was my fault.

They installed it in a really hard to get to spot and then installed the water maker in the opening they used under the galley sink. Then they installed a fridge compressor almost having sex with the water maker. Tight quarters down there.

The hole I ripped out in the settee and wall I talk about in my other thread about my rot issues is what I had to crawl through to get to this and stick the pen in.

[Sailmonkey]

Are y’all in Kemah? If you need inspiration on through hull installation with adapters and backing plates, I’ve done most of ours and would be willin to show you what the finished product looks like.

We’re in watergate.

[ttex]

Oh and since I am confessing stuff about my new adventures as a boat owner I almost cut my foot off on a 2 inch pipe clamp. Bled all over the wood under my cockpit. My wife almost had a panic attack as I essentially bisected my heel. Super glue is great.

Good times so far with this boat stuff.

[ttex]

Originally Posted by Sailmonkey

Are y’all in Kemah? If you need inspiration on through hull installation with adapters and backing plates, I’ve done most of ours and would be willin to show you what the finished product looks like.

We’re in watergate.

We are working in Austin and driving to the boat almost every weekend and we will be there this coming weekend. If y'all are around we would love to chat about it.

I am trying to put off this repair until I can get an estimate for a bottom job and, stuffing box (I think that is what it is called) leak fix, and a new propeller (current one is soft enough to break pieces off with your fingernail).

I would like to do these things myself but this situation has changed the urgency of hauling out.

[Cpt Pat]

Originally Posted by ttex

I was connecting the diesel fill hose to the deck fill nipple and it felt stuck so I gave it a tug and it came loose. Problem solved! Time for a beer.

Except the diesel hose was under the 3/4" thru hull for the watermaker intake. Broke it clean off and water was pouring into my boat.

I dashed for the bag of wooden bungs i found on the boat and they are massive. Useless.

I ended up shoving a wad of butyl tape in the hole with an Bic click pen behind it. Still there as I try to unfudge this situation.

Always carry a few tubes of plumber's epoxy putty. It saved my boat once from a failed through-hull, just like yours. You should be able to find it at any hardware store. You just knead it up to mix, then stuff it in the hole from inside or outside. Use more than you think you need so it'll make a nice fillet at one end or the other of the hole. It'll set up under water. Just hold it there a few minutes. Note: the stuff sets up hard, will last long time, and will have to be cut out along with the failed through hull fitting (i.e., it's permanent).

I have a few holes in my deck that were placed there by my boat's esteemed former owner that I plugged 10 years ago, sanded, and painted. They've never leaked a drop. The stuff is also slightly flexible to accommodate the normal expansion/contraction of water pipes.

I never understood the philosophy of bungs. Is one supposed to:

a) saw the failed fitting off from inside in often restricted areas where one can't swing a saw, all the while watching water gush in. Hurry! Saw it off before you're under water... or,
b) hammer it into the hole from outside while trying to swing a hammer under water?

And what does one do to plug a hole with an irregular (non-round) shape?

Bungs seem like they belong to the days of sailing when one needed a half naked figurehead at the bow to "calm the seas." (Though that seems to be a pleasant way of getting attention from passing vessels.)

I entered a race once where they required I have a supply of bungs. I asked if I needed to wear a bung around my neck along with a lucky rabbit's foot and a voodoo talisman to keep away the evil spirits.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by ttex

We are working in Austin and driving to the boat almost every weekend and we will be there this coming weekend. If y'all are around we would love to chat about it.



I am trying to put off this repair until I can get an estimate for a bottom job and, stuffing box (I think that is what it is called) leak fix, and a new propeller (current one is soft enough to break pieces off with your fingernail).



I would like to do these things myself but this situation has changed the urgency of hauling out.

Realistically, if you’d like to gain some breathing room to prepare for the haul out, the through hull mushroom can be replaced with the boat in the water. It won’t be pretty on the outside, but it doesn’t need to be. Plus side is no-one needs to get wet.

Then you’ve got time to figure out the other details. The stuffing box either needs to be tightened or repacked. Both of these are in the water tasks as well.

The prop is another story. If you’re going to get a fixed prop, Baumann propellers in Houston makes a nice sail specific 3 blade prop, and will recommend a pitch and diameter based on your horsepower, gear ratio and boat length.

[conchaway]

I'm sorry.

[Rorzech]

[QUOTE=a64pilot;2900912]I already had the thru hull installed but needed to pull the elbow that I had on it for temp when I was in the Bahamas, went under the boat and placed a thick piece of foam mat,

Do you think one of those old mouse pads could serve the purpose like the yoga mat did ?

[a64pilot]

There are detailed instructions with pictures for everything your tackling on this haul out, replacing a prop, repacking the stuffing box and of course the thru hull.
He posts here as Maine Sail.
https://marinehowto.com

[KP44]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Your experience underlines the need for through hull bungs to be lashed to their respective through hulls,

I actually have wooden plugs that will fit and work. And kept with the through-hulls.

What I cannot fathom (pun intended) is how a through-hull can stick out far enough to be snagged by a fuel hose. No through-hull should stick out that far for any reason. Lucky it happened at a Marina instead of 40 miles out in a gale.
I have already replaced most of my bronze through-hulls with plastic (marleron) through-hulls and seacocks. I have heard of lightning strikes that blew the metal through-hulls out of the hull. And several of my old seacocks were hard to work or completely frozen. One had a soft iron tailpiece from the former owner that had welded itself to the bronze. (The surveyor missed it and I discovered it after a year of ownership. The whole thing crumbled when I removed it!)
I like the plastic (marleron) seacocks. They have never shown any signs of seizing or freezing up. Always work as they should.

[HopCar]

This wouldn’t have happened if the thru-hull had been installed with a flanged seacock and not just a ball valve. I’ve heard of this happening twice before. Both times it was a 3/4” thru-hull that broke. I wouldn’t install any below the waterline thru-hulls without a real flanged seacock.

[JBsurfin]

Originally Posted by fgd3

How close to the waterline is the through hull? I once replaced a friend's through hull by heeling the boat until the fitting came out of the water. We had to leave it that way long enough to go buy a new fitting.


If you replace a fitting under water make a rubber gasket--Home Depot and Lowes sell sheets of gasket material--so you won't have to deal with applying sealant under water. There are underwater sealants but they are very tricky to use--never worked for me.


Fabbian

Amazing.. Double layers Flex tape worked.. UNDER WATER as a seal.