Haul Out Thru Hulls Close or open?

[jefndeb]

Hello,

Have a haul out next week and I was wondering what Thru-hulls ball valves you guys close prior to being put on the hard, if any..

Here are mine-

Genset Raw Water Cooling
Engine Raw Water Cooling
Anchor Washdown
Air Conditioning
Head Raw Water

I ask this because I know that when I am cleaning the strainer basket for the AC, if the water level gets too far down in the strainer bowl I loose the prime for the AC pump and that is not fun to mess with...

Which ones do you suggest closing?

Thanks for your suggestions.

 

[High Wire]

None. If you were going to be out for a while I plug the thru hull openings with fiberglass screen to keep critters out.

 

[Comodave]

I always leave mine open because we haul for the winter so I want the water to drain out. But if you are going right back in then maybe close them to maintain the prime.

 

[DennisB1]

The raw water impellers on the main engines and gen sets are self priming so leave those open. The AC are centrifugal pumps that require being below the water line and may not prime when back in the water and require bleeding the air in the line. I leave these open and reprime on my boat, so I leave open also but you could close. Discharge lines from sink drains are open. Discharge lines from holding tanks I keep closed as they are normally not used in our no discharge zones in PNW Washington State.

The self priming pumps for wash down are typically self priming pumps , raw way toilets would self prime with the manual pumps, these can be open or closed as you wish.

 

[kchace]

I always leave mine open because we haul for the winter so I want the water to drain out. But if you are going right back in then maybe close them to maintain the prime.

I think Comodave made an important point here. If the ball valves are closed when the boat is in the water, the hole through the ball valve will be full of water. If that is not drained and temps go below freezing the ball valve itself can be split. Most seacocks have a drain plug on the side of the valve for that purpose but if the boat is out of the water, merely cycling the valve will drain it.

Ken

 

[RT Firefly]

Greetings,
Mr. j. As an aside you mention re-priming the AC pump is a PIA. Might this haul out be a good time to alter/adjust/move things etc. regarding the AC cooling system to make it easier to prime in the future? Then thru-hulls open or closed would not be an issue.


As mentioned, freezing weather is a different scenario.

 

[tiltrider1]

I always double check that the holding tank thru hull is closed. Here on the west coast you could get a big environmental services bill for leaking sewage across the yard.

 

[mike66]

Is this a topic for a new thread, but why don't we use self priming pumps for ac?

 

[backinblue]

I leave all mine open (except holding tank discharge which is normally closed) but I haul every fall and everything has to be winterized so it doesn't really matter, Re-priminng the AC pump is easy enough if it is needed in the spring.

 

[GoneFarrell]

Another way I learned how to get undesired environmental attention was leaving my bilge pumps on for the haul out and travel. Sloshing movement kicked one on and pissed on the tarmac.

 

[Capt Jack]

Slightly off topic. To prime my ac pump I just put a shop vac hose on the out put thru hull with the inlet thru hull open. 5 to 10 seconds later water appears. Voila. System primed and ready. YMMV

John

 

[backinblue]

Slightly off topic. To prime my ac pump I just put a shop vac hose on the out put thru hull with the inlet thru hull open. 5 to 10 seconds later water appears. Voila. System primed and ready. YMMV

John

You do this with the boat in the water? That would not be easy on my boat.

 

[Capt Jack]

Backinblue. Yup. The outlet for my AC is on the starboard side. At the dock it is easy to reach with the shop vac.

John

 

[backinblue]

Backinblue. Yup. The outlet for my AC is on the starboard side. At the dock it is easy to reach with the shop vac.

John

Great. Mine is not accessible in the water. It's easy enough for me to access the pump and bleed out the air if needed. The pump is at or below the waterline so usually not an issue.

 

[CmdrDick]

If you are in the south, be sure to PLUG all of the thru hulls with something solid, not mesh. More and more marinas have termite problems that they probably won't tell you about. Southern California and Florida have been plagued with them. The termites "FLY" each year and the swarms are all over the boats. They will get in thru the slightest crack or space. If you have a leak, they will follow it. It only takes a couple of them to get started and they will slowly eat thru every piece of wood in the boat. Wasps are also a problem, but removal is easy compared to termites.

 

[sunchaser]

Is this a topic for a new thread, but why don't we use self priming pumps for ac?

On our vessel the AC pump is well below the waterline. Each vessel is a bit unique, thus needs a bit of thought as to what valves need opening and or closing during haul out.

 

[backinblue]

If you are in the south, be sure to PLUG all of the thru hulls with something solid, not mesh. More and more marinas have termite problems that they probably won't tell you about. Southern California and Florida have been plagued with them. The termites "FLY" each year and the swarms are all over the boats. They will get in thru the slightest crack or space. If you have a leak, they will follow it. It only takes a couple of them to get started and they will slowly eat thru every piece of wood in the boat. Wasps are also a problem, but removal is easy compared to termites.

Wouldn't closing the seacock suffice?

 

[CmdrDick]

Yes, if you are sure to clear any debris deposited between the seacock and the surface.
Here, we call the wasps "mud daubers" because they deposit mud. Usually, they try to get access to the inside where they make golf ball sized lumps to lay there eggs in. Their mud cakes up like hard clay and takes real effort to clear. It could cause a second haul to clean them out. The smaller thru hulls are those most difficult to clean out. We recently had to remove a hull screen and drill out the mud from a generator cooling line that was left open. It was plugged all the way up thru the seacock and to the filter. My own boat has dozens of openings for the engines(4), sinks(2), showers(2), air conditioners(4), generator(2), sensors, fuel and water tank vents, etc. I am slowly adding flush ports to each of the important ones.

 

[Creek]

Just one practical issue: Regardless of what you do for the longer term, at least at haulout, I recommend closing all seacocks leading to sink drains. Otherwise the yard's pressure washing is highly likely to shoot a large stream of crud right back up the drain and into your boat's interior. This is one of those "don't ask me how I know" things.

 

[backinblue]

Just one practical issue: Regardless of what you do for the longer term, at least at haulout, I recommend closing all seacocks leading to sink drains. Otherwise the yard's pressure washing is highly likely to shoot a large stream of crud right back up the drain and into your boat's interior. This is one of those "don't ask me how I know" things.

My sink drains are above the waterline and hence no seacocks. I don't expect they would pressure wash above the waterline anyway.

 

[Caballero II]

Hello,

Have a haul out next week and I was wondering what Thru-hulls ball valves you guys close prior to being put on the hard, if any..

Here are mine-

Genset Raw Water Cooling
Engine Raw Water Cooling
Anchor Washdown
Air Conditioning
Head Raw Water

I ask this because I know that when I am cleaning the strainer basket for the AC, if the water level gets too far down in the strainer bowl I loose the prime for the AC pump and that is not fun to mess with...

Which ones do you suggest closing?

Thanks for your suggestions.

I am surprised by the overwhelming advice to leave thru-hulls open for haulout. In SoCal, my boat stays in the water all year, except for an annual (or even less frequent) haul out for bottom paint and any other jobs that I have been saving up to do out of the water. There is little to no chance of freezing here. I keep all thru-hulls Closed all the time, unless they need to be open for operation. I'm not sure what I'm missing here.

I don't have a/c, and do have fresh water heads.

I like the advice about ensuring the automatic bilge pump is turned off for the haul out.

 

[backinblue]

What you are missing is that not everyone lives in SoCal or another area where the only reason to haul is for regular maintenance. Many of us live where we haul every fall for winter storage and launch again in the spring. Two completely different scenarios. For me, hauling for winter storage, I see no reason to close seacocks. You want to drain the water and it will be winterized anyway. If I was hauling for a couple days to paint the bottom and re-launch, I would likely close all seacocks.

 

[Comodave]

Here when we used to winterize we would close the seacock in order to do the winterizing so the antifreeze wouldn’t run out on to the ground. Then we would open them up to drain any residual water out just in case. We would leave them open all winter but we didn’t have any issues here with bugs getting in them. Here the problem is mice. We don’t leave anything that might be taken as food on board. Including bars of soap, they like to chew on them. A friend left some on his boat and mice got onboard and pooped everywhere. Not sure how they were able to get on board up the sides of the fiberglass boat.

 

[Caballero II]

What you are missing is that not everyone lives in SoCal or another area where the only reason to haul is for regular maintenance. Many of us live where we haul every fall for winter storage and launch again in the spring. Two completely different scenarios. For me, hauling for winter storage, I see no reason to close seacocks. You want to drain the water and it will be winterized anyway. If I was hauling for a couple days to paint the bottom and re-launch, I would likely close all seacocks.

Jeez, did you read my post? I think I mentioned that, other than freeze potential, I choose to close all seacocks. I understand well the need to drain any fluids in a situation where freezing is a possibility.

 

[backinblue]

So if you are just hauling for a short time and relaunching, might as well keep everything closed. The onbly reason I see to leave open if you are haul;ing for winter storage. Sorry if I misunderstood something you were asking. If you are coming out and going back in soon, might as well leave everything closed and primed!

 

[rwidman]

Is this a topic for a new thread, but why don't we use self priming pumps for ac?

The typical self priming pump uses an impeller that is in contact with the pump housing and wears out relatively quickly. The pump for the air conditioning is different and there is little or no wear.

 

[Hippocampus]

It’s easy to install a valved T to reprime AC units. Those below water line just opening the strainer usually means a very short run to the pump if you don’t T.
In the tropics use Bop (a very strong insecticide) on all tie downs and anything that connects to the land. Also spray Bop on dock lines if wet stored. Part of yacht management is to respray after it rains. Haven’t been able to find rat discs small enough for boats. Crinkled aluminum foil works if put on lightly. Through hulls are left closed . Most important is the exhaust for the heating furnace. The nozzle will pit and need replacement if exposed to salt air so that one is plugged from the outside. Very fine mesh plastic screening is mushed into balls and jammed in from the outside for the bilge pump discharges and AC or dehumidifier. The type used for screen doors. Cockroaches are prevented. The boat is bombed as the last step when put away. Other than a dehumidifier or a external AC unit running it’s airtight. Longest we were on the hard in the tropics was 2 months. You could still smell the stuff and we needed to open everything, run the fans and wait 24h in order to reoccupy the boat.
Up north where it freezes leave everything open except blocking exhaust for heating furnace.