Replacing a seacock while in the water?

[paulie4203]

While closing my Marelon seacock for my deckwash, the handle came off! Yikes! Good thing it closed before that happened. Unfortunately, water started to weep out from where the handle was, so I used some emergency tape across the opening which so far has stemmed the leak. My question is, am I now stuck with a haulout for replacement or has anyone done this while in the water? We're in NC and the water is a brisk 45F.

Thanks in advance.

[rbk]

I recently saw a cheap product designed to do exactly this. I’ll try and look it up. I want to say a 3 pack was $20.

[rbk]

Nope. Not $20 but still seems to make an in water replacement easy unless you’re willing/able to get in the water, then you can do it with a plunger, plastic bag, tack bing just about anything.

Seabung

[paulie4203]

Thanks for jogging my memory about Seabung. I remember having seen it sometime in the past. $56 US for two different sizes. Thanks

[Oldshipwright]

Not for the faint of heart but doable. You will get water when you take the old one off but you won’t sink. The main trick is to have the new valve open when you start the thread. Once you have a couple of threads on you can close it.

[Tillsbury]

This is way easier than people make out. I recently did it for the first time and it was a complete non-event. The pressure is tiny. I had a wooden bung ready, unscrewed the fitting and put the bung in immediately. You can then clean up the threads etc, and get the new seacock ready. Stage 2, take the wooden bung out and screw the new seacock in. No need to have it open. I got two cups of water in the bilge, tops.

[Capt.Don]

I had this happen on all of my 3/4" Maralon seacocks. The problem is the small machine screw holding the handle works loose. When one of my handles broke, I wasn't so lucky - the valve was not close all the way. It was a very stressful hour or so while I sorted out this problem. You can use the handle to close the valve -- you just can't screw it together. You also have to find the o-rings.

This is an easy fix -- Contact Forespar support (salestechsupport at forespar dot com). Their customer support is excellent. Explain that the handle on your 3/4" (verify??) Maralon seacock broke off. There's a small threaded machine screw holding the handle and it worked itself loose. Send a picture. If you are lucky, they will send you a replacement seacock and in-the-water instructions for repair.

As far as installation - the little white plug on the end of the handle fits in the water side of the thruhull opening. You or your diver can insert the plug into the thruhull. Then, you can disassemble the body of the seacock and replace the middle section (the one with the stripped ball valve). Be mindful of the order of the top, gasket, middle, gasket, etc., and reassemble in the same way. Once back together, you can remove the white plug. Forespar has instructions on how to do this.

The body of the Maralon seacocks has not changed. They replaced the machine screw with a nut and bolt, which is much better. Funny, my 1" seacocks have not worked loose.

Good luck,
Don

[Tellie]

Thru hulls are installed in the water all the time. You don't pull a 100'+ boat for a new thru hull. Now, that being said, replacing a thru hull in the water can bring a different set of issues. There's know way of knowing that it will come out easy, galling threads half way unscrewed can leave you in a pickle with a thru hull half out. If the hull has seen damage, etc, especially cored hulls, you might end up pulling the boat anyway. Certainly doable in the water, but I'd let a company that specializes in it do it just in case there is any unforeseen problems half way through the job.

[rbk]

Originally Posted by Tellie

Thru hulls are installed in the water all the time. You don't pull a 100'+ boat for a new thru hull. Now, that being said, replacing a thru hull in the water can bring a different set of issues. There's know way of knowing that it will come out easy, galling threads half way unscrewed can leave you in a pickle with a thru hull half out. If the hull has seen damage, etc, especially cored hulls, you might end up pulling the boat anyway. Certainly doable in the water, but I'd let a company that specializes in it do it just in case there is any unforeseen problems half way through the job.

He’s just replacing the valve not the thru hull. If it’s a true design or similar, most have a ball valve that can be removed independent of the thru hull and backing nut.

[19thol]

what is the red cone for on the seabung? Didn't see any mention of it on the website.

[rbk]

It goes onto the thru hull/skin fitting and stops water from entering. Unlike a bung you can install the ball valve tighten then as you extract the sea bung you close the valve.

[nigel1]

Originally Posted by 19thol

what is the red cone for on the seabung? Didn't see any mention of it on the website.

I think it's a belt and braces approach. The stem of the seabung goes through the red cone. The red cone is then pushed into the top of the fitting.
On the website it shows it being used on one of the video's

[HopCar]

Originally Posted by 19thol

what is the red cone for on the seabung? Didn't see any mention of it on the website.

As I recall the cone was meant to be slid down the stem to help hold the Seabung in place. I don’t think it is really necessary as water pressure holds it in place.

My old company, Hopkins-Carter, was a distributor for SeaBung. Not sure if they still stock them but I see they’re still listed on the SeaBung website.

[tce001]

What is the brand of the seacock that failed? I'm just in the process of replacing mine and was thinking of going composite.

[CarinaPDX]

I replaced a faulty 3/4" valve in January in Sweden, no problem. The modest amount of water that came in was not an issue; it was very cold on the hands though, and did spray around a bit. I backed the valve until it was almost off, then wrapped the thru-hull with Teflon tape before doing the swap (new valve open). I also had a soft wood plug available just in case. The project seems a lot scarier than it is in actual practice.


Greg