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Thru-hull removal-Phase two
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? |
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