Plastic Thru-hulls

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Jim Legere

I just purchased a 1983 Hunter 37C. The head sink drains to a plastic thru hull located at or slightly above the water line on the port side. No valve - just a hose attached to a plastic thru hull. I'm replacing it with a bronze one with ball valve. Ditto for the deck scuppers in the quarter berth & galley cupboard. Did Hunter actually build it this way or did someone do a "cheapo" along the way? Seems to be a great boat in all other aspects, though I am planning to replace the rudder (delaminating). This web site and the Rainbow Chaser site have been great resources!
 
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Peggie Hall/Head Mistress

Why not reroute your head sink drain to...

the head intake thru-hull? Then the sink can be used as a handy dandy way to to flush all the seawater out of the head intake and pump? Two articles in the Head Mistress forum Reference Library discuss this in detail--"Head Related Odors..." and "Intake Odor Cure." And while you're there, you'll prob'ly find some useful information in the rest of the articles too.
 
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Mike Knight

Replaced all plastic thru-hulls!

I recently descovered when preparing to take an afternoon sail that the head sink drain thru-hull was slightly below the waterline. I found out the hard way. I noticed that my bilge pump was running about every five minutes. I went below pulled the floor board to inspect the bilge area. There was more water than normal, so I began checking all valves, thru-hulls and anything that may be causing the excess water. I finally discoved that the plastic thru-hull for the head sink drain was leaking. reach down to try and tighten it and it crumbled in my hand. To make a long story short, I replaced all plastics near or under water line with bronze. The plastics, if exposed to sun will deteriate and fail, eventually. Good luck and happy sailing!
 
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Debra Blatnik

My 79 H37C sink drain had a bronze thruhull

(Could have been changed out by a previous owner, but everything else was original). It also had a non-operating gate valve. So the thruhull and gate valve were replaced with a more reasonable seacock ...
 
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Ed Schenck

Are you sure Debra?

Peggy told me a long time ago to put a shut-off on the sink drain. But we were discussing the sink at the vanity across from the head. H37C's came standard with some flex hose to a plastic thru-hull with no valve. That thru-hull went out through the middle of the bootstripe, same as the deck scuppers. It will be under water on a starboard tack. If yours is bronze with a seacock then it has been changed. The thru-hull on the galley sink came as a substantial bronze unit. But it did have a large gate valve that should be a seacock.
 
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Garry Elmer

Agree. Replace.

The same fitting went on our 33. We put in a plywood backing plate, bronze mushroom and a quick-throw ball valve hull stop.
 
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Bob Miller

Bronze Thru-hulls

All the thru-hulls on my 1984 37C were bronze gate valves (head inlet, head flush, head sink drain, galley sink drain, engine cooling inlet). I replaced all of them with ball-cock valves when the head inlet valve froze and broke in the open position. The deck scuppers are plastic, but exit about 8 inches below the toe rail, well above the water line. Other plastic thru-hulls include anchor box drain and vents for the holding tank and freash water tanks. The only concern I have now are the plastic thru-hulls (with no valves) for the cockpit drains - previously discussed in other postings.
 
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