Thru Hulls

stevebirch2002 · May 4, 2003

Hi Paul

Good idea to change them all if oyu are not sure. Some may be stuck, best
way I
have found of removing them is with careful use of an angle grinder from
outside, gring off the lip then push through from the outside.

The large one at the front starboard side is the heads outlet not inlet. The
heads inlet will be much smaller as it just brings in sea water. All the sizes
seem OK.

You should have the following under waterline holes....

Heads inlet - Starboard front
Heads outlet - starboard front
Salt water tap inlet - starboard amidships
Sink outlet - Starboard amidships
Engine cooling - Starboard amidships
Log/Speed - Optional anywhere
Depth - optional anywhere
Stern tube - Aft where the prop goes through (Still a hole and should be
checked)

Hope this helps. Stick to bronze and dont use gate valves. Use proper ball
valves.

Kind RegardsSteve Birch VEga "Southern Comfort" V1703

These are only my thoughts and ideas and are not cast in stone!!!

At 16:02 04/05/03 +0000, you wrote:

pelagicasd · May 6, 2003

Paul, Your head inlet is huge! Is it really 1 3/4"? What about the head
outlet? I changed from the old gate valve by careening on a very low minus
tide. Bought a new 1 1/2 in gate valve, got the old one off the thru hull
and and went to put the new one on. Found my thru hull was
1 1/4". Mad scramble back to West Marine for a proper sized valve. I replace
it with a Marelon (plastic)valve on the origional bronze thru hull. The tide
was coming back in and I could see water lapping at the bottom of the thru
hull! I had the handle shear off the valve a year later. In all fairness
though I didn't open and close that valve very often. The next time I hauled
I changed everything to 1 1/2". Good luck and use a backing plate between
the flange nut and the inside of the hull. Don't use a permanent sealer
between them. Walt, S/V Lyric

stevebirch2002 · May 6, 2003

Hi Paul

USe a polyeurothane sealant. Do not use an epoxy one as this will be a bugger if you ever have to take it off. Stick to bronze, tried and tested. Good luck

Steve Birch

pelagicasd · May 6, 2003

Hi Paul, It was a plastic one. Seal it as Steve reccomends. Good luck! Walt

chris20636 · May 7, 2003

Heya Paul,

I'm sure you have already found it, but just in case, my toilet inlet was forward of the toilet outlet. It was located inside the storage space in the V-berth area behind a sliding storage door. I'm in the process of replacing my thru-hulls. I have already removed all the old hardware. I plan to install Marelon thru-hulls and seacocks. I will, for certain, be putting through bolted seacocks with backing blocks on the head inlet/outlet and sink inlet/outlet. I have not decided what to do about the engine cooling. The main reason for choosing Marelon over bronze is that I don't have to agonize over the corrosion issue. (Do I have to worry about it? Do I bond or not bond the system? Should I be worried about my neighbors battery charger? Etc.)

My original plan was to plug the engine cooling hole and tap off the larger sink inlet for engine cooling. I wanted to do this because installing a through bolted seacock in the original location seemed difficult due to lack of space, and the large curvature in the engine pan curving away from the seacock complicating the fabrication and placement of a backing block. There was some discussion awhile back (search on the Yahoo groups site for "thru hulls") about the pros and cons of using a single water source for both sink and engine. I still haven't decided on this and probably won't decide until the last minute. If I do use the sink inlet for engine cooling, I probably won't hook up the sink to it, since I probably wouldn't use salt water at the sink anyway. (or use a bucket if needed). However, if I decide to use the original engine cooling hole, then I will probably take the easy way out and just use a bronze ball valve (not a through bolted seacock).

If the group has already answered this and I missed it, then I apologize for asking again: But has anyone been able to install a proper through bolted, with backing block, seacock in the original engine cooling location (V2933)?

I just finished cutting out the backing blocks (3/4" plywood) for my seacocks. I made the blocks about 2-3" larger than the seacock base. They are not round, but 8 sided. I used a plane and wood rasp to put a bevel on the edges so that there won't be any hard spots on the hull. This weekend is busted because of a visit to the parents (Mothers Day). So I hope to get out to the boat and do any required shaping of the blocks to fit the hull surface.

Chris
V2933

maciacarter · May 7, 2003

Hello,

We did install a through bolted seacock in the origional raw water intake space. It is a little tight but we are very happy with it. We put in a 3/4" bronze ball valve, it was an apollo full flanged seacock with a triangular base. We took a grinder to a piece of thick plywood until it fit the curve of the hull, and then with 3m's 5200, a completely permanant polyeurethane we glued it to the hull, sealed the edges, then glued another block of wood over that, encasing the two in the sealant. When it dried, we drilled and mounted the seacock. It's easy to turn on and off, we just have to take the top step off, we don't have to remove the front. Don't do that when the engine is running obviously, but, why would you? We open and close it every time we use the engine, so we also get to give the engine a little once over before starting, so we noticed any twisted scraps of Volvo geen metal that may have fallen into the engine pan. The only problem is that the foam insulation has come loose there and tends to sit on top of the seacock, rather than snugged down beside it. Someday we'll fix that with a shoe at the bottom, and a, well, a sock I suppose that runs up the edge of it. Hasn't made it to the top of the list though.

As for the rest of the through hulls, we eliminated them all. Removed and then glassed in the head holes, and got a 5 gallon porta-potti, as heavy as I can reasonably carry any distance, It lasts a family of four about 1 week live-aboard use. We also eliminated the sink in the head. I figured that since you have to stand in the corridor to use it anyway, you may as well walk back to the other sink. The kids couldn't reach the head sink at this stage, and removing it opened up a lot of storage space. We use the onboard water system in the main sink, which we also altered, and if we need sea water, we use a bucket.

Regards,

Christine Carter
Oreneta V2175

Thru Hulls

pfmarrack

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stevebirch2002

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pelagicasd

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pfmarrack

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stevebirch2002

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pelagicasd

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chris20636

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maciacarter

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