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Old 05-07-2011, 11:34 PM   #14
koliver
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City: Saltspring Island
Vessel Name: Retreat
Vessel Model: C&L 44
Join Date: Nov 2007
Posts: 5,663
RE: Closing Thru Hulls

Inspection on a periodic basis is required. Closing? not so much.
If you have a new boat, it should have come to you after a survey. The survey report should tell you whether the thru hulls are bronze, with bronze fastenings, or if not, what you will need to change. It should also tell you if the hoses are proper quality hoses, and the method of attaching the hoses to the thru hulls is proper. If all of that checks out, you should close all of the thru hulls once, so you know where to find them in a crisis. Each of the owners should know this independently. Then, back to periodic inspections to be sure there are no issues.
In 17 years ownership of this boat, I have had two high bilge water incidents. one was a failed fitting just above the thru hull, the valve on the fwd head discharge cracked around the outside of the ball. This is located in an awkward spot under the galley floor, so possibly a PO had worked it a lot and damaged it, or maybe it was faulty from when it was installed. I won't ever know. It did provide a stream of water that would have come in whether it was in the closed position or open. The second was failed packing on the port rudder shaft, where no thru hull valve could have saved me.
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