New hoses for water drain

[kurz]

BOAT if you want to protect your fiberglass: Take the through hull out. Eventually enlarge the troughull a little. And put gelcoat on the rim or something different... Maybe will last longer that way...?

[BOAT]

Gelcoat cracks and leaks. It's the tiny slow leak that you can't see. That's the one that does the most damage. The best thing to do with a normal thru hull is to position it above the water line like the anchor locker - but in some cases that's just not possible like in the case for the gravity drain for the sink and motor well. For the shower I just installed I put in a sump with a pump that pumps the water to a thru hull that is well above the water line.

On these small boats your best bet is to make something that is easily serviceable - not something cemented in so bad you can't remove it to service the hole. The factory method of a thru hull in 5200 is fine for a small boat that does not cross oceans. The only real option is to remove the thru hull and reseal it every 7 or 8 years. That way you are sure that there is no damage to the fiberglass layers. Exposing the cut end of a fiberglass panel to water is always a bad idea. I am already seeing a little bit of color at the inner edge of the hole where the ballast tank bow vent is because I run my ballast hole open with no plug in it most of the time so the water has started to seep into the edge layer around that hole. You can tell by the little green 'halo' that forms around the edge of the hole. It's not a big deal in the case of the bow vent because you can always just drill it out from 3/4 to 1 inch and put in a bigger plug but on a hull fitting not so simple.

It's great to have a fitting that can out last the Bronze Age or even the Jurassic period but the problem is having fiberglass that can last that long - that's where the weakness is, not the fitting. The boat will not outlast the fitting unless there is a people around to service it.

I'm sure in a thousand years after the bombs have blown us away the archaeologists in the year 3018 will be sifting a dry desert that used to be the Florida Keys in 2018 and find remains of our bronze thru hulls and deduce them as artifacts of a lost civilization of people that lived on the water in Clorox bottles and had advanced knowledge of Nobel metals and they will call our time "The Nobel Period" and wonder over the vast graveyard of bronze fittings scattered along a mountain range in a dry desert that sit's 100 miles North of Havana.

[Wayne nicol]

the right way imo to mount thru-hulls or bolting attachments etc, especially through the transom, is to drill the hole oversize, fill the hole with epoxy- after curing drill the b size hole you need- now the glass is well sealed with an epoxy collar- then just use the caulking of your choice.
like Boat says, one that is relatively easy to remove and check on over time.

personally- i would stay away from cheap plastic thru-hulls and get good quality bronze ones with a proper ball valve.

i agree again Boat, if you can, put the thru-hulls above the waterline- many will disagree,
even on my pumpout for the head, its about 3"above the waterline- you certainly want to be pumping out under full plane, and not at anchor
we are allowed to pump out up here- with certain restrictions, as not one of our 4 docks on island have sani stations.
maybe that will change in time!

[kurz]

About throughulls with ball valve:
If you have this and it stays under waterline: If the lakes freez: Even if you close the ball valve, you will have a tube maybe 2 inches... leeding outboard. Will be this tube stay save?

[yukonbob]

The bigger concern with freezing is the valve itself. Groco’s come with a screw to bleed the waters out of he valve and a zerk fitting can be installed for annual grease application. If your lake is freezing to the point of bursting the skin fitting chances are you’ll be having many other issues.

[BOAT]

IMO only steel boats should be in freezing waters. Shackleton learned the hard way about taking any boat not made of steel into the ice.

[Highlander]

I was lookin at this 27ft cruiser today I counted 7 thro hulls of approx three sizes all 6-12" above the water line & they looked like factory original equip. all on the S/B side !

J

[kurz]

IMO only steel boats should be in freezing waters. Shackleton learned the hard way about taking any boat not made of steel into the ice.

What happened?

Had no problems yet so far...

[BOAT]

IMO only steel boats should be in freezing waters. Shackleton learned the hard way about taking any boat not made of steel into the ice.

What happened?

Had no problems yet so far...

It did not end well.

[paul I]

IMO only steel boats should be in freezing waters. Shackleton learned the hard way about taking any boat not made of steel into the ice.

I'm not sure that even a steel hull of the day could survive being crushed by Antarctic ice.

[Highlander]

Yep even the Ice Breaker,s can get into trouble if they r not careful

J

[Russ]

Great article this month on hoses.

http://www.boatus.com/magazine/2018/aug ... t-hose.asp