Newbie asks: Do you close ALL thruhulls?

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plebel
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Newbie asks: Do you close ALL thruhulls?

I've been reading how people have learned the hard way to keep their ignition keys near their raw water engine intake valve after forgetting to open it.

My question is what about the other (5?) thruhull intake/outlet valves? Do you also close them off each and every time you leave the boat? If not, what's so special about the engine raw water intake?

I'm a newbie with only trailer sailer experience.

Thanks,
Paul

Paul & Ann   -   
"Freestyle"   -   
1985 C36 #454   -   
North Puget Sound, WA

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jworth3
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After discovering that a PO of my C34 had plumbed a thru-hull with galvanized pipe from Home Depot which was holding on with about a half a rusted thread, I close all my thru/hulls every time I leave the boat for the day. There are only four of them on my C36 (not counting AC which is almost always closed anyway) taking about 2 minutes to close. Tiny price to pay for peace of mind and not sinking our boat!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2

Joe & Patti Worth
"Tehani"
1999 C36 MKII #1810
Atlantic Highlands, NJ

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plaineolde
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Close them all every time. Engine is first opened, when I put the hatch boards in the hanging locker in the aft cabin. Have never started the engine with it closed; works for me.

Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay

caprice 1050
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Paul
By hanging the Ignition key next to the raw water inlet valve you won't forget to open the valve before starting the engine.

__/)__/)__/)__Capt Mike__/)__/)__/)__
Punta Gorda Florida
1990 Std WK M35 Hull #1050

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stu jackson c34
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What's your entire boat worth to you?

All it takes is a $5 or less hose clamp (OK, $10 if you're double clamped) to fail, and the glug, glug, glug sound really su*ks, 'specially if you're not there to hear it.

When we are on board, we leave them open, and they haven't failed in the 15 years we've owned the boat and the past 26 since she was built.

That doesn't mean we don't take prudent precautions.

KISS, close 'em when you leave the boat to go home. Worst case is it forces you to look at them. Only way I noticed our 1 1/2" head valve was leaking years ago.

Stu Jackson, C34IA Secretary, C34 #224, 1986, SR/FK, M25 engine, Rocna 10 (22#)

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plebel
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Thanks guys. I count 6 total. 2 in the head (toilet in, shower out), 2 to port (holding tank & galley sea water), 1 under sink drain, and 1engine raw water.

It's just that so much has been written about the engine water intake (and failure to remember it), that I wondered what people were doing with all the other 5. Seems that if you made the rounds with all other five every time, you'd also remember to open/close the engine HX intake.

Paul & Ann   -   
"Freestyle"   -   
1985 C36 #454   -   
North Puget Sound, WA

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On our C 30, we took in seawater through the head when underway in certain conditions…maybe an anti siphon valve was blocked, or maybe the angle of heel rendered it non functional. I any event, water entered, filled the holding tank and then poured out the head.

When I'm underway, I close all but the engine intake thru hulls.

Paul & Wendy Keyser
"First Light"
Rye NH
2005 C36 MKII #2257
Wing, M35B

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plaineolde
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re: engine HX through hull.

when I start the engine in the slip, first thing I do is look over the stern. I can usually hear the water gushing out of the exhaust as I'm in stern first, and see the ripples on the water. If there's any doubt, I get up on the dock and look to make sure. Once I'm out on the water, I know it's already open, so only worry about it at dock.

Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay

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Chachere
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We try to do it every time we're leaving the boat for more than 1/2 an hour.

Indeed, the one time we forgot to, we almost had a disaster: A few years ago on a weekend trip to Block Island, one of our guests had used the shower and failed to close the shower sump seacock. We were just getting into the dingy to go ashore for dinner when someone realized they needed something from the boat. Stepping back aboard we discovered the head compartment was full of water -- apparently the anti-siphon had failed, and seawater was siphoning back in.

Scary to imagine what our return later that night would have been like had we not caught this!

Matthew Chachère
s/v ¡Que Chévere!
(Formerly 1985 C36 MKI #466 tall rig fin keel M25)
2006 Catalina Morgan 440 #30.
Homeported in eastern Long Island, NY

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I shut off the head intake when I'm gone. Shower sump is always left closed. I never bother with the others and they are left open. I rarely mess with the galley drain, the AC intake, or the engine. The engine in particular is exceptionally difficult to get to.

Maybe I should worry more, but I don't.

Greg Jackson
SV Jacqui Marie
2004 C36, MKII
tall rig, wing keel,

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GaryB
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I shut them all off when I exit the boat for a day a week or whatever. When I return to the boat the habit is formed to open all of them.

Gary Bain
S/V "Gone With The Wind"
Catalina 36', Hull #: 1056, Year: 1990, Engine: M-35
Standard Rig
Moored: Boothbay Harbor, Maine
Home: Auburn, Maine

pierview
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Not only do we shut the valves off when we leave the boat, we shut them when we start sailing too. There can be more pressure on the hoses when sailing and you sure don't want something to fail then either.

I've heard of 3 boats sinking this winter (they were left in the water) because their raw water intake was left open and in the severe freezes we've had in NJ this winter, the raw water filter unit cracked, allowing flooding. Since there are not many people around the marinas in the winter to notice boats settling , down they went. One was as a result of a broker taking a buyer out on a sea trial and leaving the intake open after the trial.... try explaining that to the seller.

Chuck Parker
HelenRita 2072 Mk II
2002 Tall Rig - Winged Keel
Atlantic Highlands, NJ

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StephenK
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I close my mine, but the sink drain is a pain to get to and the marelon valve is really stiff and hard to open and close. Is there anyway to lubricate those or should I just install a new one at next haul out?

Stephen Kruse
Kruse Control #1428
1995 C-36 MKII SR/WK
Lake Lanier, Ga.

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Nimue
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I usually close them all. I had one of the head ones apart recently and someone had put a brass male/male threaded nipple between the seacock and the elbow coming off it - this crumbled in my hands.

I also deleted the vestigial head overboard discharge thru hull and glassed in the hole to remove another point of failure.

Jason V
Vancouver, BC, Canada

BudStreet
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Stephen, Marelon makes a lube for them called, oddly enough, MareLube. You can get it in a paste, I use a long thin handled brush to put it on.

[URL]http://www.defender.com/product3.jsp?path=-1|10918|2303326|2303327&id=1784676[/URL]

FlyMeAway
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Asking around the dock, I do think there is a huge point of Internet bias going on.

This may be because it isn't the brightest idea to admit in writing that you don't close all of your through-hulls every single time you leave the boat.

When I asked around about this last summer, it sounded like the majority of folks did not close their thru-hulls when using the boats weekly (as during the summer), but would close them when leaving the boat for more than a week or two with no plans to return. And there are those who live aboard who basically never close their thru-hulls. Huge degrees of variability.

David
s/v Portmanteau
Hull #2133 -- 2003 MKII
Seattle, WA

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deising
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David, I believe you have a very cogent point.

Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/

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plaineolde
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Some years ago my slip neighbor bought a used C&C Landfall 38. Gave me the tour; very nice boat. But when he showed me the engine compartment, I could see two large hoses coming from aft, connect to two bronze through hulls. They were the cockpit drains. I thought to myself at the time that I would not like that one little bit. Making matters worse, he was keeping the boat in the water for the winter. With open through hulls the whole time. I'd have passed on buying that boat, even though Iiked just about everything else about it. The chance of those hoses freezing and/or cracking one of those through hulls would have kept me awake all winter.

Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay

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[QUOTE=plaineolde;21580]Some years ago my slip neighbor bought a used C&C Landfall 38. Gave me the tour; very nice boat. But when he showed me the engine compartment, I could see two large hoses coming from aft, connect to two bronze through hulls. They were the cockpit drains. I thought to myself at the time that I would not like that one little bit. Making matters worse, he was keeping the boat in the water for the winter. With open through hulls the whole time. I'd have passed on buying that boat, even though Iiked just about everything else about it. The chance of those hoses freezing and/or cracking one of those through hulls would have kept me awake all winter.[/QUOTE]

Worst boat I've seen for thru hulls was a Bristol. The designer wanted to keep the topsides (freeboard) pretty and clean. Most boats have a bit of a dirty area on the side, near the openings in the toe rail where the dirt runs off deck when it rains. Bristol fixed that by keeping a contiguous toe rail or bulwark and putting a bunch of deck drains straight to thru hulls below the water line. It kept all of the deck water from draining over the sides by forcing it to drain directly to thru hulls. I think there must have been 4 or 6 of those in total. The boat probably had 10 or more thru hulls.

Back on topic, I think I'd close mine more often if the engine sea cock was not so impossible to get to. I wonder if it's possible to close it permanently and run a hose to the sea cock under the sink.

GTJ

Greg Jackson
SV Jacqui Marie
2004 C36, MKII
tall rig, wing keel,

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SailorJackson
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A relatively new requirement of some races is a notification of emergency equipment, to be displayed in a clear and apparent position. I think the intent was "where do you keep the flares" but since thru hulls are often a source of emergencies, I added those to the document that's displayed on my boat. The image is attached.

Greg Jackson
SV Jacqui Marie
2004 C36, MKII
tall rig, wing keel,

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windward1
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I always close the raw water thru hull and seldom open the head because I flush with tank water, however, I seldom close the galley because it is hard to reach and gets very stiff. I have spayed the thru hulls before spring launch with a w-d type spray, except it is soy bean oil. Works great for a short while, but must wash off because especially the galley gets very stiff. Maybe that product above is the answer.

Richard
1994 C36 Tall Rig M1.5
Waukegan Harbor
Lake Michigan

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plaineolde
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I put waterproof silicone grease on the end of a dowel and stick it up the through hull prior to painting/launch. Mine are stiff, but not terribly so, the grease seems to help.

Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay

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StephenK
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[QUOTE=bstreet;21576]Stephen, Marelon makes a lube for them called, oddly enough, MareLube. You can get it in a paste, I use a long thin handled brush to put it on.

Thanks Bud, in your experience, how well does this work and last?

Stephen Kruse
Kruse Control #1428
1995 C-36 MKII SR/WK
Lake Lanier, Ga.

BudStreet
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Stephen, I started using it the year before last. We close our thru hulls whenever we leave the boat for more than a few hours so they get regular exercise. I can only say it seems to work because they are no more or less difficult to operate than they ever have been. I close them and then grease them in the fall when the boat goes on the hard and after they are greased I open them and leave them open over the winter. I only put it on that one time a year. We have heavy slime in our harbour so I'm concerned with slime build up on the ball mechanism causing problems, so far that hasn't happened.

One of these years I'm going to pull all the remaining OEM style units out and replace them with the kind that don't have the screw on handle. It's just not a simple job so it's on hold for now.

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StephenK
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Thanks Bud. I stay in the water all year, but I am going to haul out for a bottom job in May and that would be a good time for this maintenance....it certainly can't hurt.

Stephen Kruse
Kruse Control #1428
1995 C-36 MKII SR/WK
Lake Lanier, Ga.

jmcelwee
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I close all of mine when I leave the boat (she's on a mooring, 75 minutes away). Usually leave them all open while I'm on the boat.

Invariably, I always take on water through the head sink several times/season while heeled well-over on a starboard tack (making me wish I had remembered to close that thru-hull before I started sailing).

Josh McElwee
Sailing from East Greenwich, RI
2000 C36 MKII, M35B, "Chinook", Hull#1900

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benethridge
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I close mine whenever I'm leaving the boat for more than an hour, and also whenever I go to sleep. As I recall, Mel Fisher's son and daughter-in-law drowned due to an open thru-hull which failed while they were sleeping on the boat.

I also installed a high-water alarm in the bilge. Maybe I'm being overly cautious, but I don't want to end up dead over a simple thru-hull failure.

Being an ex-pilot, I also have a pre-start checklist for sailing. The list is longer than the checklists for most planes I flew! One of the items on the list is to close the thru-hulls in the head. Thus far I've never accidentally siphoned seawater into the head due to starboard heeling.

"The smart man learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others." - ancient Chinese saying.

Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263

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deising
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Since Ben mentioned the high water alarm, I will note that we had a two-point failure last fall that was quite serious. I posted a complete thread about this, but in summary:

A cockpit drain thru-hull on the transom failed and with us heeled for heavy weather sailing the hole was under water and let in perhaps 400 gallons before we notice it. That was failure #1. We didn't understand why the bilge pump had not come on, but once we turned it on manually at the switch, it helped a lot to reduce the water level. I later found the wiring from the float switch had failed at a connection. That was failure #2.

Back home, I added a second float switch wired to a piercing alarm/strobe. Had we had that when the thru-hull failed, we could have turned on the bilge pump much earlier and saved having lots of salt water sloshing around in our boat.

Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/

caprice 1050
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Duane

I like that second float switch idea. As you know my dock is only twenty five feet behind my house. I wonder if I could also wire the second float switch up to a plug in type of wire to my house so if anything happens I can hear/see the alarm go off while I am in the house?

__/)__/)__/)__Capt Mike__/)__/)__/)__
Punta Gorda Florida
1990 Std WK M35 Hull #1050

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deising
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I am sure it is possible, Mike, if not necessarily practical. Digging a trench for the wire and all that will be expensive and time consuming.

For varying amounts of money, there are commercial units out there that report via text/email on all sorts of problems: low battery voltage, high water, jar of martini olives getting low, etc. I have not researched them in any detail, nor do I have time to do so right now, but you could check it out.

Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/

BudStreet
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I'd be surprised if there isn't an app for that. There's a bloody app for everything now.

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Nimue
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If you are serious about a system at your dock, check out Sensaphone products on the web.

The Sensaphone 400 would let you connect a float switch, water detector, smoke detector, and even a door entry contact and will phone you if any of them go off, as long as you plug in a phone line when you hit the dock.

Jason V
Vancouver, BC, Canada

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benethridge
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Hi, Duane. Where did you get that piercing alarm/strobe?

Mine is pretty pathetic when it comes to loudness. I'm not even sure I'd hear it from the cockpit with the engine running.

Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263

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Rockman
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There are some monitoring type gizmos on [url]www.dx.com[/url]
I have one that is still sitting on the shelf,but it can monitor a few things and will send a SMS when an event happens. I will get around to fitting it one day. The problem is when I get down to the boat, instead of installing new toys, I go out sailing - doh!

Cat375 - Rock The Boat - Hull 54
Lake Macquarie - NSW - Australia

jmcelwee
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Posts: 102

Hey guys,

Another remote monitoring system I've had my eye on is the Siren Pixie: [url]http://sirenmarine.com/products/siren-pixie/[/url]

Does everything you would want it to do, sends reports/warnings via phone/email, etc. Been on my Amazon wish list for a while now....

Josh McElwee
Sailing from East Greenwich, RI
2000 C36 MKII, M35B, "Chinook", Hull#1900

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deising
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[QUOTE=benethridge;21611]Hi, Duane. Where did you get that piercing alarm/strobe?

Mine is pretty pathetic when it comes to loudness. I'm not even sure I'd hear it from the cockpit with the engine running.[/QUOTE]

Hi, Ben. I bought this. Yes, it is from China.

[url]http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005UTMW3E/ref=pe_385040_30332190_TE_3p_M3T1_ST...

Duane Ising - Past Commodore (2011-2012)
s/v Diva Di
1999 Catalina 36 Hull #1777
Std rig; wing keel, M35B, Delta (45#)
Punta Gorda, FL
http://www.sailblogs.com/member/diva-di/

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plaineolde
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Perhaps off topic, but I've often wished that I had a 2nd engine alarm in the cabin. The oil and temperature alarms in the cockpit might be difficult to hear when I'm running the engine to charge batteries and am down below; especially in cold weather,, when I have the drop boards in. Has anyone set up a second alarm buzzer? I'd assume I could just tap into the wiring at the senders on the engine?

Gary and Cathy Price
1997 C36 Mk II Tall Rig/Wing Keel Imagine...
Hull # 1617
Worton Creek, Md.
Northern Chesapeake Bay

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stu jackson c34
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Alarms shmalrms...

It might be easier to simply install a counter for your bilge pump.

You leave the boat, come back next week. Zero on the counter? OK.

500 starts? Hmm, not so good, find the leak.

All the electronic stuff might be overkill???

We've had three sailboats since 1983. Haven't sunk one once.

Yet...:eek:

Stu Jackson, C34IA Secretary, C34 #224, 1986, SR/FK, M25 engine, Rocna 10 (22#)

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Rockman
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[QUOTE=benethridge;21603]"The smart man learns from his own mistakes. The wise man learns from the mistakes of others." - ancient Chinese saying.[/QUOTE]

Gee and I always thought that saying was invented by my dad...

Cat375 - Rock The Boat - Hull 54
Lake Macquarie - NSW - Australia

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benethridge
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Thanks, Duane. I just ordered it from amazon.

Rockman, since I just became a granddad, I guess that makes me a wise guy. :)

Ben Ethridge
Miami, FL
1984 MK1 Hull# 263

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andreshs1
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I got called one Sunday morning by a mate from the sailing club asking if I was around Hong Kong, and when I said yes he told me to hurry down to the marina that my boat was sinking!!!
By the time I got there some of the regulars at the club had mobilized some boats to secure mine while installing high pressure pumps, at the time the boat had another two inches to go before the water went over the decks.....
It was the sink's seacock that gave up......

On my current boat I close each one of them if l am not planning on using them and then I have a pre and post engine usage list of things to do....better saved than sorry.....

Regards

Andres & Arantzazu
S/V "Carpe Diem"
Hull: 1773
1999 C36 mkII
Hong Kong
http://www.abclubhk.com/

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Rob Kyles
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Hi there - I don't think the seacock under the sink is big enough for to supply enough water to the engine...

 

S.V. Wind Star

Rob & Margie Kyles:    Auckland ,New Zealand
Mk I  Hull #105 1983   Std Rig, Std Keel

 

lflenner
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I agree getting to the raw water through hull can be a pain. Has anyone considered relocating it to a more convenient location? Is this even possible?

Larry Flenner
"Low Pressure"
C36 MK II 1995 TR/WK
Rock Hall,Md

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dejavu
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[QUOTE=FlyMeAway;21577]Asking around the dock, I do think there is a huge point of Internet bias going on.

This may be because it isn't the brightest idea to admit in writing that you don't close all of your through-hulls every single time you leave the boat.

When I asked around about this last summer, it sounded like the majority of folks did not close their thru-hulls when using the boats weekly (as during the summer), but would close them when leaving the boat for more than a week or two with no plans to return. And there are those who live aboard who basically never close their thru-hulls. Huge degrees of variability.[/QUOTE]

OK, I'll admit it. Bought my Cat 30 in 1984, then my first Cat 36 in 1986 and my current Cat 36 in 1999. 30 years of continuous ownership, never touched a seacock other than the raw water intake or macerator outtake. Never had a problem. Maybe I'm just lucky.

Mike

Deja Vu
1991 MK I # 1106
Marina del Rey, CA

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