A couple of weeks ago I posted a plea for advice re removing
old thru-hulls. The boat, as you may recall, is a Yankee 30,
built in 1974.

As an update, and in hope it might help another new sailor, I'm posting
my experience with removing all 7 thru-hulls.

The difficulty seemed to fall into two catagories....one: the valve
could be removed from the thru-hull, and two: it couldn't

In the easiest case (one), a big pipe wrench was sufficient to
remove really old gate valves. The spinning off the thru-hull
nut was easy. A tap with a hammer caused the thru-hull to pop right
out.. In one case where that didn't work, using another thru-hull
nut as a jam nut, then applying a wrench to both worked. If the
sealant is 3M 5200 you'll have to use a propane torch to heat
the thru-hull while keeping steady pressure on the thru-hull
with a wrench.

The harder case (two) was where the valve resisted all attempts
at breaking it free. In that case the thru-hull nut was backed out
as far as possible, then the thru-hull was twisted with a pipe wrench
(below the nut) until it turned. The thru-hull was pulled out from the
hull as far as possible, (from the outside of the hull), and a hacksaw
was used to cut through the thru-hull.

What did I learn? Old sealant is very weak. Boat yard advice is not to be
trusted. Old thru-hulls are not made any more, so get the
West System brochure...you'll need it to learn how to plug old
thru-hull holes and drill new ones.

Bear in mind I'd planned on replacing all thru-hulls...if you want to
save the old ones your milage may vary.

Regards, Norm B

PS: Working on a boat in 35 degree F weather, including wind,
is NOT a lot of fun. But summer will come...right?