Thru-Hull Extender
 

How about a long metal rod attached to the handle?

--


Keith
__
If your house costs more than your boat...your priorities are all screwed
up!
"Cindy Ballreich" wrote in message
...
The raw water thru-hull for our boat (a Baba 30) is located aft
of the engine in an area only accessible by removing everything
from the cockpit locker and then hanging upside down reaching
below the cockpit. Obviously, this is potentially a big hole in
the boat that may need to be closed in a hurry. We'd like to find
a solution that doesn't involve leaving the only cockpit locker
empty, moving the thru-hull, or just leaving the darn thing open
all the time and hoping for the best. Since the nearest bulkhead
is the back side of the ice box, there doesn't seem to be any
place that an access hole could be cut. This is a traditional
heavy bronze thru-hull with a ball valve (90 degree lever
handle). It seems like someone ought to make some kind of
extender that would allow the thru-hull to be operated from the
cockpit locker.

Does anyone know where we might find one?

Any other ideas?

Cindy

Thru-Hull Extender
 

"Cindy Ballreich" wrote in message
...
The raw water thru-hull for our boat (a Baba 30) is located aft
of the engine in an area only accessible by removing everything
from the cockpit locker and then hanging upside down reaching
below the cockpit. Obviously, this is potentially a big hole in
the boat that may need to be closed in a hurry. We'd like to find
a solution that doesn't involve leaving the only cockpit locker
empty, moving the thru-hull, or just leaving the darn thing open
all the time and hoping for the best. Since the nearest bulkhead
is the back side of the ice box, there doesn't seem to be any
place that an access hole could be cut. This is a traditional
heavy bronze thru-hull with a ball valve (90 degree lever
handle). It seems like someone ought to make some kind of
extender that would allow the thru-hull to be operated from the
cockpit locker.

Does anyone know where we might find one?

Any other ideas?

Cindy

You could consider a Morse (push-pull) cable. You need to fasten the cable
so that it intersects the valve body at 45 degrees so that it can open/close
the valve easily.


--
Evan Gatehouse

you'll have to rewrite my email address to get to me
ceilydh AT 3web dot net
(fools the spammers)

Thru-Hull Extender
 

Evan Gatehouse wrote:

"Cindy Ballreich" wrote in message
...
The raw water thru-hull for our boat (a Baba 30) is located aft
of the engine in an area only accessible by removing everything
from the cockpit locker and then hanging upside down reaching
below the cockpit. Obviously, this is potentially a big hole in
the boat that may need to be closed in a hurry. We'd like to find
a solution that doesn't involve leaving the only cockpit locker
empty, moving the thru-hull, or just leaving the darn thing open
all the time and hoping for the best. Since the nearest bulkhead
is the back side of the ice box, there doesn't seem to be any
place that an access hole could be cut. This is a traditional
heavy bronze thru-hull with a ball valve (90 degree lever
handle). It seems like someone ought to make some kind of
extender that would allow the thru-hull to be operated from the
cockpit locker.

Does anyone know where we might find one?

Any other ideas?

Cindy

You could consider a Morse (push-pull) cable. You need to fasten the cable
so that it intersects the valve body at 45 degrees so that it can open/close
the valve easily.

--
Evan Gatehouse

you'll have to rewrite my email address to get to me
ceilydh AT 3web dot net
(fools the spammers)

I gather that valves that you screw down to shut off are normally
not as good as a stop cock/valve operated by a lever moving 90
degrees.
But in the interest of not cutting another hole could this be a
situation where you could fit a screw type shut off valve with
its handle extended up to somewhere accessible. Then, by turning
the handle in a rotary manner from above it would be possible to
shut off the valve down below? Just an idea! Terry.

Thru-Hull Extender
 

Leave the old through-hull in place, remove the valve, put a threaded
BRONZE pipe cap on the old through-hull sealed with Locktite "RED",
clean the inside diameter of the old through hull and fill it with epoxy
'mush'. If the old through-hull has turned reddish due to loss of zinc
content - then remove it and repair the hole; otherwise, its quite safe
to "cap" it and leave it in place.

Cindy Ballreich wrote:
Terry wrote:


I gather that valves that you screw down to shut off are normally
not as good as a stop cock/valve operated by a lever moving 90
degrees. But in the interest of not cutting another hole could this be a
situation where you could fit a screw type shut off valve with
its handle extended up to somewhere accessible. Then, by turning
the handle in a rotary manner from above it would be possible to
shut off the valve down below? Just an idea! Terry.


We actually thought about that, but those valves aren't as safe as the
regular thru-hull valves - especially for something as important as the
raw water intake. We played with the idea of attaching a gear to the
handle of the existing thru-hull and turning it with another gear at the
end of a long rod. I did some sketches and it probably would have
worked, but it would have been too fragile to withstand much abuse so we
abandoned the idea.

Anyway, we finally decided that the simplest and safest thing to do is
to go ahead and move the thru-hull the next time the boat is on the
hard. Somebody said that we could do this while the boat was still in
the water, but that seems crazy to me.

We want to remove the old thru-hull and fill the hole so we don't have
to worry about it any more. Should we be concerned about the strength of
the filled hole? (The hull is fairly thick and not cored.) Are there any
considerations we should be aware of? The whole concept of holes in the
hull is one that makes us uncomfortable.

Cindy

Thru-Hull Extender
 

Most boats are reinforced (thickened) in the hull areas where the
designer/builder expects through hulls to be placed. Be sure you don't
pick a particularly thin spot. You also might want to build it up some.

Joe Wood

Cindy Ballreich wrote:
Terry wrote:


I gather that valves that you screw down to shut off are normally
not as good as a stop cock/valve operated by a lever moving 90
degrees. But in the interest of not cutting another hole could this be a
situation where you could fit a screw type shut off valve with
its handle extended up to somewhere accessible. Then, by turning
the handle in a rotary manner from above it would be possible to
shut off the valve down below? Just an idea! Terry.


We actually thought about that, but those valves aren't as safe as the
regular thru-hull valves - especially for something as important as the
raw water intake. We played with the idea of attaching a gear to the
handle of the existing thru-hull and turning it with another gear at the
end of a long rod. I did some sketches and it probably would have
worked, but it would have been too fragile to withstand much abuse so we
abandoned the idea.

Anyway, we finally decided that the simplest and safest thing to do is
to go ahead and move the thru-hull the next time the boat is on the
hard. Somebody said that we could do this while the boat was still in
the water, but that seems crazy to me.

We want to remove the old thru-hull and fill the hole so we don't have
to worry about it any more. Should we be concerned about the strength of
the filled hole? (The hull is fairly thick and not cored.) Are there any
considerations we should be aware of? The whole concept of holes in the
hull is one that makes us uncomfortable.

Cindy

Thru-Hull Extender
 

Terry wrote:

I gather that valves that you screw down to shut off are normally
not as good as a stop cock/valve operated by a lever moving 90
degrees.
But in the interest of not cutting another hole could this be a
situation where you could fit a screw type shut off valve with
its handle extended up to somewhere accessible. Then, by turning
the handle in a rotary manner from above it would be possible to
shut off the valve down below? Just an idea! Terry.


The screw valves are called "Gate" valves and they have no business
being on a boat. [many reasons snipped for brevity.]

Replacement ball valves or sea cocks -- both 1/4 turn on-off -- are
inexpensive (certainly less than your insurance deductable), are easily
turned, and their open/closed state can be visually determined.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-a-Deux ('73 Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD)
Xan's Pages: http://members.dca.net/jerelull/X-Main.html
Our BVI FAQs (290+ pics) http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/