Thru Hull Fittings

How many, above waterline, thru hull fittings have you got. Yesterday I counted 11 on on Sarawana. I can account for 7 of them, which has got me wondering what about the other four.It is something that I have not thought much *about before.

Perhaps it is time for some detective work.

A story of above waterline fittings. Some friends of mine bought a cruising Cat and installed Tecma toilets in the boat, no holding tank. The thru hull fitting for the discharge*was above the waterline. The boat was on the hard stand when they decided to test the new loo, a dry run so to speak.

*It hit this poor apprentice who was about*15 feet away working on another boat. Which led to some very funny observations of what was likely to happen with the boat in the water under operational conditions. They fitted a below waterline fitting.


-- Edited by Andy G on Saturday 26th of November 2011 10:21:30 PM

"A story of above waterline fittings."

Remember to heel the non multihull to the extreme , before considering any thru hull "above the WL".

If you have the plastic ones. UV really makes them brittle.

I had one just at the waterline. Snapped off on the inside. Replaced it with a metal one.*

Andy G wrote:
How many, above waterline, thru hull fittings have you got. Yesterday I counted 11 on on Sarawana. I can account for 7 of them, which has got me wondering what about the other four.It is something that I have not thought much *about before.

Perhaps it is time for some detective work.

You might not have thought of:

cockpit drains

propane locker drain

shower or shower sump

air conditioning cooling water

air conditioning condensate

fuel and water tank vents

Click to expand...

*

We have a number of "just above the waterline" throughhulls that, as FF suggests, are sometimes right at the waterline. On close inspection we discovered that they had no shutoff valves and were plastic. They are now bronze with shutoff valves.

In our area there is a lot of flotsam & jetsam in the water, so the bronze gives added security, particularly since the throughhulls (plastic or bronze) *stand slightly proud of the hull and if hit exactly right could be sheered off or at least damaged if plastic.

Our throughhulls include, beyond Ron's list, bilge pump drains, sidedeck drains, and the holding tank vent.

Higher up on the hull is also the Espar furnace outlet.

I'm not in favor of any plastic fittings that are below the waterline OR exposed to UV. My last boat had plastic mushroom fittings above the waterline... After about 4 years they just crumbled. Stick with bronze.

I would be more concerned about the thru hulls below the water line, than above the water line.* I had all the through hulls, 8 of them, taken out and filled except for the engines, 4 through hulls above the water line taken out.* Now there are 2 below the water and 7 above the water of which 6 are also for the bilge pumps.** All the thru hulls hoses above the water are looped as high as they can which is about 3 to 4 feet above the water line.* ****

I installed dirt/window and roof AC units that do no circulate raw water.* Each stateroom has a 6,000 btu dirt window AC that I built enclosures and butted up against a port window.* The pilot house and salon have 8,000 btu roof AC.* The heating is Webasto diesel.

Phil Fill wrote:
I installed dirt/window and roof AC units that do no circulate raw water.* Each stateroom has a 6,000 btu dirt window AC that I built enclosures and butted up against a port window.* The pilot house and salon have 8,000 btu roof AC.* The heating is Webasto diesel.

Click to expand...

Silly me. I thought the PNW was wet and chilly.

We used them 2 days last summer when it got above 80.* **Mostly we use them on fan mode to clean/move the air, even in the winter time.* We still had the heat on August 1st in the morning.* When it gets above 75 we are roasting.*

I had my boat up on a hard stand ready for replacing the shaft pss gland and shaft bearing,we decided to wash our hands in the sink and no water would come out of the side of the boat,it ended up in the boat all over the floor.How is this we checked out the fitting and all ok i could only wonder if these fitting need sea water pressure to work.Any ideas

NO fitting needs "sea water pressure" to seal.

You have a bigger problem .

Good hunting

abalone154 wrote:
I had my boat up on a hard stand ready for replacing the shaft pss gland and shaft bearing,we decided to wash our hands in the sink and no water would come out of the side of the boat,it ended up in the boat all over the floor.How is this we checked out the fitting and all ok i could only wonder if these fitting need sea water pressure to work.Any ideas

Click to expand...

*Boat sink drains are usually pretty easy...sink, straight shot of hose...through hull to outside.* MAYBE there is a seacock or ball valve against the hull.* If no "valve" against the hull...only*2 possibilities come to me....hose is off or has a massive split in it*just under the sink and the water wound up on the floor or it overflowed the sink which I would think you would have noticed.