stuck seacock.... collective wisdom?

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Tree

.
Jun 4, 2004
33
Bristol 27 Alaska
What would you do: You are several days sail away from your home port. The seacock on the sink drain through hull is solidly stuck open. There is not an option of hauling the boat out of the water. The nearest place that has the equipment to do it is your home port. Oh, one more thing, the local water is very cold. Not just "not fun" cold but dangerously cold. Are there any options? "Tricks"? or would you "just keep an eye on it"? (my worry is if the hose should fail at sea, you have one very big problem!) I've thought about de-commissioning the sink and trying to plug the through hull from the outside somehow..... bad idea?
 

RAD

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Jun 3, 2004
2,330
Catalina 30 Bay Shore, N.Y.
Keep an eye on it!

Go get a cone shape wood plug and tape it to the hose,or before leaving get another valve and install it with hose between the two valves you could set up the new valve and hose and pull the sink hose off the sea cock and get a little wet while you quickley installed this new hose/valve and have a little more piece of mind. If it were me I'd just go with the cone,in fact I have cones taped to all my thru hull valves Fair winds
 
Jun 3, 2005
20
- - Sunshine Coast
freeing frozen outlets

In NZ boats that leave must be CAT1 CLASSED In the safety gear they must have, is a range of tapered wooden bungs, old fashioned but entirely practical, these bungs can be kept on string and hung adjacent to you sea cock If your sea cock is broze and you wish to unfreeze the take a heavy hammer, hold it against the body of the cock and tap the other side gently with a lighter hammer, this will in most cases free up the offending barrel, this is for tapered cocks only, if yours are gate valves, dont try this If you have a faIlure, heel the boat, try get the outlet above water, either by tacking or putting people out on the boom, take of the valve body and fit your wooden tapered plug i wood replace all cocks with three piece ss ball valves, they never freeze and are smooth to operate. I fitted them to all my new boats
 
Jun 3, 2005
20
- - Sunshine Coast
whoops sorry

sorry did not answer your question, the hose is very unlikely to fail, but if it did and if you have a question about its soundness, you can change it underway with suprisingly little water coming in, get the boat moving as fast as possible and take it off and replace it, My guess is it would be a three quarter inch hose , now if it was 3 inch I would worry,
 
J

Joanie

double clamps

If you choose to "wait and watch", besure you have double clamps on each end of hoses. Joanie
 

Tree

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Jun 4, 2004
33
Bristol 27 Alaska
follow up

To Joanie: I have double clamps. To Rad and Lazeyjack: I have tapered wood plugs very handy. To Lazeyjack: It is a 1 and 13/16" inch Outside Diameter hose. so, I figure its probably a 1 1/2" ID seacock. So far, the idea of heeling the boat has a bit of merit ... but by my calculations, (and memory) the through hull is well "down there"!
 
May 11, 2005
3,431
Seidelman S37 Slidell, La.
Question

This is not an answer to your problem, rather a question concerning same. Why is the thru hull for the sink below the water line. I have thru hulls for sinks, bilge pumps etc. Only one I have below the water line is for the engine cooling. All others are a couple of inches above the water line.
 
S

steve

seacocks

I just put a cpl drops of 3 in one oil on my stuck head valves and next day they were fine with very minor tickling to move them steve
 
A

Andy

Never say

"solidly stuck open" until you have sprayed it liberally with PB Blaster (available at Wal Mart even) and waited a day.
 
Mar 7, 2005
10
- - Matecumbe, Florida Keys
This may sound a little crazy, but it works

I had a similar problem, I tried all of the above...nothing worked!!!! After much thought...and many, many beers, I came up with an idea that worked quite well for me. Don't snicker!!! I went overboard with a large squeeze bottle filled with Marval Mystry Oil and began filling from the thru-hull, displacing the water in the drain with oil, as oil is lighter and floats on water. I filled until the oil started to flow out of the thru-hull then I plugged it. I then filled from thre sink until full and plugged the sink. I let it sit overnight. Around noon the next day, I tapped the sea cock and it freed up almost like it was never stuck!
 
Mar 7, 2005
10
- - Matecumbe, Florida Keys
To Fred

Right!!!! I used one of those small pumps that you attach to a drill motor, the kind used to change engine oil, and pumped the oil from the drain before removing the thru-hull plug. I was able to recover most of the oil from the drain, but in all fairness, about an ounce of oil was lost to the water.
 
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