Max Simmons
Guru
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2007
- Messages
- 805
- Vessel Make
- Ocean Alexander 38'
Recently I replaced the hoses on the raw water side of the engines, and while doing this, pulled the sea strainers, disassembled, cleaned them up and replaced the gaskets. After getting everything back together, opened up thru-hulls and checked for leaks. The Port side had a small drip coming from the bottom, where the clear cylinder beds into the new rubber gasket. I snugged down the tie rod nut about 1/2 a turn and it stopped. Ran engines for a bit to make sure all was well, water was flowing, no leakage, all is good. I shut everything down and closed the thru-hulls and headed home. A few days later, I'm on the boat, headed out for a short cruise with a friend. Drop down in the engine room and open up thru-hulls. Water is pouring out of the Port strainer, WTH? Close thu-hull and investigate. Turns out one of the tie rods snapped sometime while I was away, which in turn allowed raw water to dump out the bottom straight into the bilge. I pulled the strainer and replaced the rods.
My takeaway from this is just common sense reminder to always shut the thru-hulls when away from the boat. I had typically done this only when away for long periods of time. Also, thoroughly inspect the sea strainer assemblies. There are many weak links here, any one of them failing could be a potential disaster.
My takeaway from this is just common sense reminder to always shut the thru-hulls when away from the boat. I had typically done this only when away for long periods of time. Also, thoroughly inspect the sea strainer assemblies. There are many weak links here, any one of them failing could be a potential disaster.