Seacock goes.. now what?

[bsurvey]

if you are in warmer climates then you should put it in from the outside.

if not you will have to remove the piping in way. essentially tear it out. its amazing how strong you can be when you sinking

[Bill_E]

I actually broke off a thruhull right at the interior nut. Fortunately there were two of us! We were attempting to remove the valve from the thruhull to replace it. We also had wooden plugs handy. The thruhull and valve were both very corroded...electrocorrosion. It was a 2 inch thruhull, drain for my holding tank. It's pretty scary to see the water pouring in!! Anyway my compadre just put his foot over the hole while I grabbed the bung and hammer and handed it to him. It worked well. We then took our time and got together all of the stuff we needed for a repair and fixed it the next day with a new thruhull and valve. We did the repair in the water and managed it without problem.

But...I'm now worried about all of my "seacocks". Actually, mine are all thruhulls with valves. I'll replace them all next spring when I haul out and will be following MaineSail's advice/instructions on thruhull replacement. It'll probably be about $1000 just for all of the parts!

Bill

[Cadence]

The best answer is probably prevention. If a leak is above an operable seacock so what close the valve. The biggest danger, in my view, is electrolysis. Bronze seacocks will snap like a Ritz cracker. If space is available a sea chest would be the ticket and is probably not available on most small craft.

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by Bill_E

But...I'm now worried about all of my "seacocks". Actually, mine are all thruhulls with valves. I'll replace them all next spring when I haul out and will be following MaineSail's advice/instructions on thruhull replacement. It'll probably be about $1000 just for all of the parts!

Bill

I will say he has one of the most comprehesive DIY/Informational boat repair web sites I've seen so far. Definitely worth the read.

Marine How To - Compass Marine - Boat Repair Free Information

[w1651]

Originally Posted by Bill_E

I actually broke off a thruhull right at the interior nut. Fortunately there were two of us! We were attempting to remove the valve from the thruhull to replace it. We also had wooden plugs handy. The thruhull and valve were both very corroded...electrocorrosion. It was a 2 inch thruhull, drain for my holding tank. It's pretty scary to see the water pouring in!! Anyway my compadre just put his foot over the hole while I grabbed the bung and hammer and handed it to him. It worked well. We then took our time and got together all of the stuff we needed for a repair and fixed it the next day with a new thruhull and valve. We did the repair in the water and managed it without problem.

But...I'm now worried about all of my "seacocks". Actually, mine are all thruhulls with valves. I'll replace them all next spring when I haul out and will be following MaineSail's advice/instructions on thruhull replacement. It'll probably be about $1000 just for all of the parts!

Bill

I'm interested in knowing what you used around the new thruhull to seal it under water. 5200?

[Matt sachs]

Theres are my sea cocks / thru hulls. The thru hull pipe has a half inch wall thickness and the hull here is 1/4 inch. Its all bead blasted inside and out then coated with amercoat 240. The gasket is Buna-n rubber and the bolts are 316 stainless.

[Bill_E]

Yep, 5200. It's not my favorite material but it works well in this application. If I recall all of the details, what we did is: Prepared the thruhull with a wooden bung plug that we notched to fit the inside of the thruhull and a small eyebolt with a long "string" on it (we wanted to be able to easily retrieve the bung plug when we finally removed it). The bung plug wide end was on the outside of the thruhull. Then we put an excess of 5200 on the thruhull. My friend volunteered to get in the water so he got ready and got in. I handed him the prepared thruhull and then went below. He whacked out the bung plug that was in the hole and quickly pushed the new thruhull into the (already prepared) hole and pushed on it. I quickly cleaned it as best I could and threaded the nut on and tightened it down. Now everything was in place and watertight. We waited a day or so before putting the valve and connecting tubing on the thruhull. To to that we just got everything ready, whacked the plug out into the water and quickly put the (closed) valve on the thruhull. Since the bung plug had a line on it we easily retrieved it.

The installation is OK but doesn't really meet my requirements so I'll be replacing it next spring along with all of the others. I will be using MaineSail's advice here: Replacing Thru-Hulls and Seacocks Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com . Since I really hate drilling holes in my hull I'll probably use his more difficult installation Seacock Backing Plates / Alternate Method / No Through Bolts Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com

Bill

[w1651]

Originally Posted by Bill_E

Yep, 5200. It's not my favorite material but it works well in this application. If I recall all of the details, what we did is: Prepared the thruhull with a wooden bung plug that we notched to fit the inside of the thruhull and a small eyebolt with a long "string" on it (we wanted to be able to easily retrieve the bung plug when we finally removed it). The bung plug wide end was on the outside of the thruhull. Then we put an excess of 5200 on the thruhull. My friend volunteered to get in the water so he got ready and got in. I handed him the prepared thruhull and then went below. He whacked out the bung plug that was in the hole and quickly pushed the new thruhull into the (already prepared) hole and pushed on it. I quickly cleaned it as best I could and threaded the nut on and tightened it down. Now everything was in place and watertight. We waited a day or so before putting the valve and connecting tubing on the thruhull. To to that we just got everything ready, whacked the plug out into the water and quickly put the (closed) valve on the thruhull. Since the bung plug had a line on it we easily retrieved it.

The installation is OK but doesn't really meet my requirements so I'll be replacing it next spring along with all of the others. I will be using MaineSail's advice here: Replacing Thru-Hulls and Seacocks Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com . Since I really hate drilling holes in my hull I'll probably use his more difficult installation Seacock Backing Plates / Alternate Method / No Through Bolts Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com

Bill

I replaced all mine on the hard back in April and am glad I did it. I had a sea cock used as the drain for the galley sink snap off at the top of the seacock breaking the hose and nipple off flush. All I did was just slightly touch it when working on my engine at the time. I new then the seacocks were bad.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/penney...o/13571323733/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/penney...o/13571628544/

As you can see the seacock for the head just crumbled when I put a wrench on it in pic 2. I feel a lot safer now that it was relaced and a thruhull added for the galley sink.

[w1651]

Originally Posted by Matt sachs

Theres are my sea cocks / thru hulls. The thru hull pipe has a half inch wall thickness and the hull here is 1/4 inch. Its all bead blasted inside and out then coated with amercoat 240. The gasket is Buna-n rubber and the bolts are 316 stainless.

Nice Very Nice!

[HopCar]

"I actually broke off a thruhull right at the interior nut."

That's why it's a bad idea to use a ball valve just screwed onto a thru-hull.
I'm glad you're planning to install real flanged seacocks or flanged adapters soon.

"Since I really hate drilling holes in my hull I'll probably use his more difficult installation Seacock Backing Plates / Alternate Method / No Through Bolts Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com"

Since Maine Sail posted that, Groco started making backing plates with threaded inserts. They are a lot easier to use than making your own. Not terribly expensive when you look at the cost of G-10 plus labor.


Link: Groco Seacock Backing Block

When you're ready, please check my prices on seacocks.
Seacocks by Groco and Apollo Conbraco

[Matt sachs]

Thank you. I thought by doing it this way I could maintain it better, although I still have to maintain the sea cock.

[ontherocks83]

Originally Posted by HopCar

Since Maine Sail posted that, Groco started making backing plates with threaded inserts. They are a lot easier to use than making your own. Not terribly expensive when you look at the cost of G-10 plus labor.


Link: Groco Seacock Backing Block

When you're ready, please check my prices on seacocks.
Seacocks by Groco and Apollo Conbraco

That is awesome news to hear. That makes the project so much easier and less time consuming with out having to fabricate everything

[Bill_E]

The backing plates sure look like the way to go. I'll have to check on dimensions and installation requirements. I suppose they work much the way MaineSail's backing plates work. I'll do some research on them and will look up the dimensions on all of my thruhulls. Unfortunately, I'm about 2000 miles away from my boat. Thanks!

Bill

[HopCar]

" I suppose they work much the way MaineSail's backing plates work."

It wouldn't surprise me if Groco got the idea from MaineSail.
They are very well thought out. Each plate is drilled to fit two sizes of seacock.
For example the small plate can be used with either a 3/4" or a 1" seacock.
The hole pattern on the Groco seacocks matches the pattern on the Apollo seacocks so the backing blocks can be used on Apollo seacocks as well.

[armand.seguin]

Fellow Boaters,

Has anybody actually used the StayAfloat product?

This thread seems about 2 years old, and maybe time to start another as I'm mainly interested in this product.

The videos at the website are very impressive, and apparently some tow or rescue boats carry it, but so far I've not run across anyone who has used it in a practical situation.

Thanks,

Armand
USCG Master, San Francisco area