It Always Takes Longer

When we were learning to sail, one of my instructors once said "if you want to know how long it takes to sail there, take how long it takes to walk and add a day."  I don't know if he came up with that or if it came from somewhere else, but it gives you a good idea that travel by sailboat is fairly slow.  Now I just need a way to better gauge how long a boat project takes.  Take how long it takes to do a project on land and double it?  Or add a month? or ???  Of course, I never could gauge projects well on land either (a long weekend bath retile project using stone tiles took us over 2 months to complete).

Yesterday we spent a fairly long day rebedding the through hulls. I don't think we were done until after 9 PM.  We started off by going to each through hull location and dry fitting the parts to make sure everything fit as it was supposed to and to determine orientation of the parts. It is also a good time to figure out the assembly process for each through hull.  You would think that you would use the same process each time, but within the confines of a boat, it doesn't work out that way. With the narrow spaces in a boat hull you need to figure out which parts you can pre-assemble and which need to be done in place. You even need to see if you can get wrenches or other tools to the locations where they are needed and that you have the room to swing them. Oh, and don't forget how you are going to apply the sealant to each of those parts as you assemble them...caulk guns aren't exactly low-profile tools either.

What the 1.5 inch through hull looks like from the outside.

One problem area I found and didn't really have a way around was the nut that screws on to the through hull. The nut itself is relatively thin so it doesn't take up a lot of assembly space. Unfortunately this also means there isn't much surface area to get a wrench around it.  Add in the fact that boat hulls are usually curved and you are trying to tighten this nut on the concave side, and it can be a real bear to get the wrench to turn the nut.

The 1.5 inch through hull from inside.
Note the general lack of space around it.

Another major issue is simply dimensional space.  As an example, all the 1.5 inch through hulls in the boat are in narrow spaces and require an elbow just after they penetrate the hull so the valve and hoses will run along the wall of the hull. Of course the ball valve handle sticks out far enough that you cannot thread it onto the elbow without hitting the nearby hull, even with the handle removed. So, you need to attach the valve to the elbow first.  Then you run into the problem that the combination of the elbow and the valve sticking off one side of it takes more swing room to thread on than you have available.  So, how do you attach all of this together and still be able to tighten that thin through hull retaining nut while not spinning all of the sealant out of the fittings and causing a leak?  Heh, heh, heh...guess I'll find out if my approach worked when we put the boat back in the water.

The air conditioner through hulls installed.

If all of this rambling doesn't make sense, just take a good look at the pictures and the various parts and think of how you would assemble all of them together. It took us about as long to dry fit the things as it did to rebed them. Rebedding consisted of using sealant on all the threads as well as a generous bead around the mushroom head of each through hull. Assembly is a combination of NPS and NPT threads, so orientation of parts can be fun.  NPS threads will just turn until the pieces bottom out, but will always leak without some sort of sealant.  NPT threads can be tightened so they won't leak, but then you don't get much of a choice of which direction handles or hose barbs point. A good sealant seems critical when you can't tighten pieces enough due to the needed orientation.  Since the through hulls on this boat are not the ideal proper seacocks with through bolts, I decided to go with 4200 as it is both an adhesive and a sealant but not as permanent as 5200. It appears to be what the original builder used so hopefully it will work well to both hold things in position and seal them.

The air conditioner through hulls from inside.
Remember the far one is at the limit of my reach.

The through hull replacement project has certainly taken a little longer than I expected, but we now have 12 new assemblies and are waiting on the sealant to cure.  Of course, at under double the amount of time, I'm still doing better than that tile project on the time estimate versus reality front.

It Worked.

You know, sometimes I even surprise myself.  This through hull replacement turned fix the cored hull seems to have turned out as good as I could have hoped.  In my last post I talked about how two through hulls were not put in properly on the boat and the negligence could have allowed water to soak into the core and cause delamination (a very serious structural problem on cored composite boats). As it turned out, there were actually three through-hulls that were apparently installed by the same people, but in one of the cases they got lucky and didn't drill through cored fiberglass.  The only evidence all three were done by the same folks were they were all related to the AC system (or generator to power them) and that they failed to remove the old bottom paint before installing any of the three the through hulls.  Ablative bottom paint isn't the best surface to try and create a seal against..since it ablates after all.

To fix the prior installation issues, I spent a lot of time with a small screwdriver, a Dremel tool, and even a hex wrench to remove any wet core material I found and create a void between the fiberglass skin layers. I could then fill the void with epoxy to seal the remaining core and create a better mounting surface for the through hull. Before adding the epoxy my wife and I, for good measure, packed the holes with silica gel (a desiccant) to pull out any possible residual moisture in the core.
We let that sit for a day or two as we worked on cleaning up the other through hull holes and located parts for another unexpected project.

Yesterday we continued work on these two through hull holes. We started by removing the tape and silica gel we had packed into the holes.  Did I mention that the location of these two through hulls is in one of the least accessible parts of the boat, directly underneath the stairs that lead from the salon to the starboard hull.  The only access is via a cabinet door under the desk and that door leads to a chase that runs aft under the stairs.  And these holes are located just about a full arms length from that cabinet door.  Add in the air conditioner lines, raw water pumps, and other hoses and wires that are run through this space, and working in it can be...well...a challenge.

View from the access location.
The short black posts are the wrapped PVC pipe
in the holes in the hull.

Using my Dremel tool, I drilled several holes through the inner skin of the hull and into the area where I had removed the balsa core material so I could inject epoxy into the voids.  I then took some plastic (trash bag actually) and wrapped two small pieces of PVC and inserted them into the the two holes.  These would create a mold for the hole I want to remain and allow me to inject epoxy into the voids without it all spilling through the holes and ending up on the ground.

I mixed up some West System G-flex thickened epoxy, placed it in a syringe, and began injecting the stuff into the holes.  I started at the bottom injection hole and would squirt epoxy in until I saw it come out the next two holes above it.  I then took some cellophane tape and covered over the lower hole and started injecting from the next holes up in order to try and prevent any air from being trapped inside the repair. Oh, and to see the holes, I needed to use an inspection mirror attached to a flexible shaft that I could wrap around whatever was convenient or have my wife hold and position to get a look at my work. It took about two full West System epoxy syringes worth of epoxy, and I have no idea how many colorful metaphors, to fill the area around each hole.

The holes sealed and ready for replacement through hulls.

The epoxy takes between 7 and 10 hours to cure, so I couldn't see the results of all the work until this morning.  When I got up this morning, I was a little concerned how easy it would be to remove the PVC "molds".  Luckily, they slid right out and exposed a very nice cylindrical hole lined with epoxy. The results look very nice and I'm sure this will keep the core sealed and provide a good structure for re-mounting the through hull. Hopefully we can get some of those re-installed tomorrow.

Do It Right

Ok, I'll admit, I'm a bit of a perfectionist.  Always have been.  Guess I've always believed in the tired phrase of "you can do it right, or you can do it over".  Unfortunately much of the work that has been done on my boat prior to my stewardship didn't follow along those lines.  Some of it might have been prior owners not knowing the right way to do things (and I know I certainly don't...but that is what the internet is for these days), but a lot of it seems to be the work of marine "professionals".

This through hull replacement project has turned into another case of discovering things done wrong.  When you have a composite cored hull, it is important to keep water from being able to get to the core. When water penetrates, it can cause the core material to separate from the fiberglass skins, and that significantly weakens the structure. As I previously mentioned, some people with Leopards have reported that they have found through hulls where the core was not properly sealed.  So, needless to say, I was a bit worried about this project, despite the pre-purchase survey finding no indications of moisture around the fittings.

Well, the good news is that all the factory through hulls are in solid fiberglass, no core material visible.  Unfortunately, it appears that a couple of my through hulls were not done at the factory.  The two through hulls that feed raw water to cool the air conditioners were not installed properly.  The holes were drilled through the cored hull, and no measures were taken, other than the bedding sealant used, to seal off the core.  In addition, they didn't even bother to remove the bottom paint from the area before the through hulls were installed.  It was a ticking time bomb.

Fortunately, we seem to have caught it in time. The sealant that managed to stick to the through hulls and the small amounts of exposed gel coat that weren't covered in bottom paint had just started to fail, and there was only a very small amount of moisture in the cores right at the holes.

The proper way to put a hole through a cored hull is to drill a hole larger than the one you need, fill it with epoxy fiberglass, and then drill the smaller size hole you need in the new fiberglass.  This results in a solid fiberglass sleeve that not only seals the core material from any potential water leaks, but also provides a surface with higher compression resistance for the clamping of the through hull.  Since I already have a hole and drilling a larger hole isn't really an option at this point, the repair technique I will be using consists of digging out some of the core material around the hole (this will also get rid of any wet core material) and then filling the created gap with a thickened epoxy to create the solid sleeve and seal off the remaining core.

Cleaned up holes packed with silica gel.

Most of yesterday was spent cleaning off the old bottom paint that was found underneath the through hull (how does pressure washing take this stuff off and yet a scraper and sandpaper have such a tough time with it) and digging out the old core material to about the diameter of the through hull head (3/4" deep or more).  It took quite a while to chip out the balsa with a Dremel tool, screwdriver, and hex wrench (think bent piece of wire).

Once I had the groove cut out and could see good balsa all the way around the holes, I decided I really wanted to make sure that all the moisture was gone.  I started with a heat gun, but wasn't making any real progress...and I didn't want to sit there for a day or more waving the heat gun back and forth across the holes.  Then I remembered I had a bunch of extra silica gel from making those desiccant packs for my tool storage containers.  We took some tape and sealed over the bottom of the holes, then filled the holes up with silica gel, working it into the areas where I removed the core and taped off the top to prevent atmospheric moisture from interfering with the gel.  Hopefully, leaving this stuff in there until we are ready to fill it with epoxy will extract any latent moisture.

We were lucky.  The poor practices of the original installer were caught before any significant damage was done.  If it weren't for the need to replace a couple through hulls and the decision to replace them all, we might not have found this issue until much more extensive and costly delamination repairs would be required.  And getting things done right is how we ended up in a boatyard doing work ourselves in the first place...well that and the cost of getting things done by "professionals".  Now is my chance to do it over and do it right.

She Won't Float Now

Nope, if you drop Rover in the water right now, she would probably sink rather quickly. Ok, so being a cored composite construction catamaran, she probably won't become submerged (since I don't have a big lead weight in my keels, she would only sink to the point that the natural buoyancy of the plastic, balsa, and wood she is made of) but she would take on some water pretty quickly. After all, I don't think the painters tape that is currently covering the 11 holes in the boat are likely to stop sea water.

Yep, yesterday and the day before we made 11 holes below the waterline in the boat.  Ok, you caught me again, we actually removed 11 old through hulls and ball valves, so technically we opened up 11 existing holes. There is only one through hull that remains, and it is an obviously much newer one than the rest, so we decided it still should have plenty of life left in it.

The two removed from two days ago

Why did we remove them? Well, some of them didn't look in the best of condition, and I had heard several reports of people having problems with electrolysis weakening the original valves or through hulls in much shorter time frames than one would expect of quality valves under normal conditions. There were also reports that some boats had through-hull holes that were not properly sealed and would allow water penetration into the balsa core. The final straw was that I managed to break the handle off one of the old valves trying to open it on our trip north, rendering it permanently closed. Since I didn't want a valve coming off in my hand (as the handle already did) and I don't want any delamination problems with the hull, we decided to pull and replace all the old through hulls.

Now, to the uninitiated or those unfamiliar with boat maintenance, replacing one of these things might not sound all that difficult.  Remove the attached hose, unscrew the valve, remove the through hull nut, and remove the through hull itself with assembly being exactly the opposite, adding in a little sealant along the way. But, in reality, one thing will almost always prevent this easy sounding process: corrosion.. Since 1999, or whenever some of these parts were previously replaced, corrosion has been doing its best to convert these collection of parts into one giant, seized together piece. The chances of me getting one to come apart...well...I'm probably far better off expecting that lottery ticket I bought will hit the jackpot.

The only real way to remove these things is to cut off the head of the through hull (this is the part that is clamping it to the hull from the outside) and then coax the remaining bit out of the hole. I find a lot of swearing helps coax it out...preferably in multiple languages if you know them.

The head of a through hull before we started work on it

Cutting the head off can be done using a hole saw and a wooden bung. You pound the bung into the through hull from the outside, carefully center your hole saw guide bit in the middle of the bung, and drill a hole the size of the through hull until the head pops off. Or that is the hole saw process I've been told. I don't have hole saws nor enough bungs to sacrifice 11 of them to the cause, so I took an alternate approach. I grind the heads off with an angle grinder that I do have.

This sounds difficult and potentially dangerous to a fiberglass boat hull, but if you go slowly and keep control of the grinder, it isn't that bad. Using the curve of the grinding wheel, you simply grind away a cup or tapered shape at the center of the through hull.

Ground down through hull head about ready to come off.

You will reach a point where you will begin to see the head separate.  Underneath that separation line is actually sealant (the through hulls are designed with a taper to hold a bead of sealant...it help keeps them water tight and all of that).so you aren't grinding into your hull.  Once you get that line to appear (at least in regular intervals) around the through hull, you can stop grinding and use a screwdriver to break any remaining thin layers of metal and then pop the head off.  I use a utility knife to score the bottom paint around the through hull in an attempt to prevent the head of the through hull from taking off too much of the adjacent bottom paint.

Carefully popping the head off without damaging the hull.

At this point, providing the previous installer didn't use something as stupid strong as 3M 5200, you can probably twist the valve assembly and work it free.  If it was stuck with 5200...well..I'm not exactly sure what you would do besides curse a lot more.  You might need to go invest in those hole saws at this point because my understanding is that 5200 is very permanent...as in fiberglass and gel coat will come off with it.

Looking at the cut through hulls, I'm not sure if I had a problem with zinc being leached out of the bronze (I think the theory was that the "bad" through hulls had a high zinc content and electrolysis was leaching the zinc out of the bronze). There were certainly some surface areas that were more copper colored than bronze, but internally they seemed properly colored to me.  I did notice a couple different colors of bronze (in the picture below), but neither were decidedly copper looking to my untrained eye, so I'm guessing those are just different bronze formulations.  If you happen to have any knowledge on this, please leave me a comment below.

Different colors of bronze or a zinc problem, what do you think?

One problem I did find was that the two through hulls for the air conditioners did not have the core properly sealed, and only the sealant was preventing water from entering the balsa core.  So, before I re-install them, I will need to cut out a bit of the balsa and seal it with epoxy to guarantee no future water penetration. I haven't inspected all the holes yet, but thus far the other ones on the starboard hull all seem to be in solid fiberglass with no exposed core.

All except the two largest valves.  4 different manufacturers.

So, here you have it....a picture of most of yesterday's work.  Wonder if I can find a metal recycling company nearby and recoup a little bit of the money involved in this project.

Landlocked Again

Three days ago...wow, it seems both a very long and very short time frame right now...we left Salt Ponds Marina in Hampton, VA for Severn Yachting Center, the boatyard we selected to do our through-hull work and hopefully build my new hard top bimini.  We originally wanted to leave on Monday, but the yard couldn't haul us until Tuesday so we spent the extra day at Salt Ponds and then departed on Tuesday.

When we set up the Tuesday arrival, the girl at the desk really wanted to pin us down to an arrival time.  I told her that I would need to check the weather and, as a sailboat, probably couldn't give her a reasonably firm time until the evening before or morning we were to leave.  She insisted she needed some time to put in the book, so my wife said 1 PM and I reiterated this was just a wild guess at the time. Well, as you might expect, when I checked the weather (specifically the winds) and the expected time of departure I determined that 1 PM was optimistic and 3 PM was more likely.  I called the yard in the morning as we departed (they were already closed for the evening when I determined this) and was told they wouldn't be able to haul me until the following day but, after the receptionist checked with someone else at the yard, called us back and said they would put me on a T-head for the night.  Seems reasonable so we continued on.

Without time pressures (we now only had to get there before they closed at 5 PM or so), we were able to sail most of the way.  A warm day for sure, but reasonable winds most of the day kept us moving along. It wasn't until our speed dropped below 3 knots and we were going to need to make a turn directly into the wind that we pressed the engines into service once again.  We dropped the sails and motored our way up the Severn river, arriving at the marina about 4 PM.

During our approach, we tried calling them on the radio several times (they indicated they always monitor it during business hours) and finally had to call the on a cell phone to get a hold of them. They confirmed that we would be on the first face dock as we approached, and they would send someone down to help with lines and guide us. Here was where we were given another surprise.  The T-head was a fixed dock and had large pilings in the water about 28 ft off the face of the dock and spaced about 25 foot apart (remember, my boat is 38 foot long and over 21 foot wide).  There were crab pot buoys scattered about and some white PVC pipes stuck in random locations around the dock too. To complicate matters further, that headwind we had coming in had picked up and was blowing straight across the face of the T-head.

T-head left, piling right, pipe and crab pots behind.

Best we could tell, the employees on the dock were trying to tell us to pull into the dock directly over one of the crab pot buoys and one of the PVC pipes. Not wanting to wrap a propeller around the line holding the crab pot to the buoy and not knowing if I could run over the plastic pipe or if it marked something to be avoided, I tried contacting the marina on the radio to discuss the situation. But the marina employees didn't have a handheld radio (or a cell phone) with them.  They tried shouting from the dock, but sitting at the helm all I can really hear is...wait for it...the rumble of the engines.  I decided my best approach was to go past the dock, across the mouth of one of their fairways, and back in between the dock and the pilings. After my wife got a couple extra fenders and lines out and ready, I was able to maneuver the boat sideways into the fairway channel and back into the dock. With a little help from the dock we got the boat tied up and safe for the night.

While walking the boat sideways into the fairway I noticed that a motor boat on the T-head across from us was a boat we saw at Salt Ponds.  They were on their boat and gave us a thumbs up while I was maneuvering onto the dock, and since we had recognized the boat, we decided we should go over and say hi. Tim and Debbie were a nice couple and, like us, have two dogs on board as well.  We chatted for a bit before heading back to the boat.

Did I mention that when I checked my email just before we departed Salt Ponds I was contacted by someone we met at our going away party in Colorado?  They were in town for just a day or so and wanted to see if we could connect before they hopped on a plane back to Colorado. While we were introducing ourselves to Tim and Debbie, they stopped by and were greeted by our dogs. Unfortunately, they left before we could get back to our boat.  Sorry Jim and Judy, hopefully we can get together when our paths cross next.

Driving through the forest

The next day we hauled the boat.  The marina didn't want to haul it until high tide, so it was scheduled at 1 PM. I didn't understand why, since my boat only draws 3' 7", they wanted to wait until high tide. They said it had something to do with the width of the boat and the lifts straps and it was easier at high tide.  So, a little before 1 PM we made our way over to the haul-out slip and Rover once again took flight.

While they were pulling the boat, I reiterated that the boat has sacrificial keels and it cannot just be blocked on its keels.  This seemed like a surprise to them and they questioned how they were going to block it.  The yard manager told me how the ABYC "standard way of blocking" was to set a boat on its keels and then use stands to keep it from tipping over.  That may be great for the average monohull where most of the weight and structure are related to the keel, but a number of catamarans, including mine, have sacrificial keels and are not designed to take the full weight of the boat. He ended up calling someone at Leopard and was told that some weight could be placed on the keels, but it definitely should not take the whole weight.  We eventually devised a blocking option using both the keels and blocks at the adjacent bulkheads to support the boat.  This should meet the needs of the boat according to the guy at Leopard...hope he was right.

Blocked, with tarps up for shade.

By the time we got the boat blocked, it was already after 4 PM, so it didn't look like we would get any work done that day.  It was also very hot.  You don't know how nice a breeze on a boat feels until you are sitting on your boat, over a bunch of crushed granite, with trees around you blocking the breeze. In order to survive the next few days, we ended up buying a new centerpiece for our salon table...a 12000 BTU portable air conditioner. If you are living on a boat on the hard during the summer, I think one of these is pretty much a necessity to prevent your boat from becoming an experiment as a large scale solar oven.

Yesterday we were finally able to start working...almost.  After finding where we had stored all the brass through hulls and valves and other bits we had purchased last year, we went through and verified that we had all the parts we needed.  Unfortunately we found that the 1" Marelon fittings would not thread into the valves.  The 3/4" and 1 1/2" ones worked fine, but that left us with 5 elbow fittings that would not work.  With the boatyard's help we called around and ended up talking with the manufacturer.  Unfortunately, the manufacturer could only really give us excuses.  "The fitting is NPS threaded and not NPT, and the valve we have is NPT" was one of the excuses.  When we told him that it didn't thread onto two different NPS threaded fittings we had here either, his only suggestion was that we buy one of their valves and it would work.  Um...no.  I already have a very expensive bronze valve, so I'm not going to replace it with their expensive plastic one.  Thanks Forespar...with your customer service I don't think I'll be buying any more of your products if I can at all avoid it.

Two Through-hulls out.

We never did find a replacement part and will have to see if the current ones will work.  After all the running around, we only ended up removing two of the through hulls so far.  So today we will continue to remove more through hulls as well as see if we can get some replacement parts ordered from the marina.

So, I need some fiberglass and....Squirrel!

I've been feeling a bit like Dug from the movie Up a lot since we bought the boat.  I don't remember being so scatter-brained, but recently it sure seems I have been. (By the way, if you haven't seen this Pixar film, it is definitely worth it).

Today I put kettle of water to boil, then...squirrel... forgot about it and did some tasks on the outside of the boat.  By the time I got back, the kettle had turned the bridge deck into a steam sauna dispersing 5 of the 7 cups of water into the air.  So much for the automatic off feature of the kettle...but I never trusted it anyway and that is why I usually don't leave it unattended.  The big black electric Aroma kettle is handy to have on the boat, just don't leave it alone.  Another 30 minutes spent opening all the hatches and wiping down the walls...and ceiling...and cabinets...and...off to work on more projects for the day.

Anyway, lots of projects are ongoing as I try to push to get the boat in the water and headed south.  One was the hole in the bottom of the boat I mentioned in this post. My wife and I decided that we really didn't need the secondary head discharge since we already had one as well as the pump out option.  I also decided that my very first marine fiberglass work should probably not be in one so prone to quickly sink the boat should it fail, so I had the "fiberglass guy" in the yard do the work and hopefully learn a thing or two as there will likely be one more of these to deal with in the future.

I understand the basics of patching a hole, that you need the patch to be wider than the hole on both sides so it makes a good seal and can't accidentally be knocked out.  Since the hull is over a half inch thick solid fiberglass at the bottom, I wasn't exactly sure the best way of filling it.

Mark, the "fiberglass guy", started by sanding and cleaning around the inside of the hole.  Then he laid in some biaxial fiberglass mat to seal the hole from the inside.

Next, he mixed up some vinyl ester resin (boat fiberglass resin) with some chopped fiberglass strands to make a filler and filled the hole.

Once all of that cured, he ground down a fair amount of the filler, feathering into the existing hull fiberglass to make that "larger than the hole patch" for the outside of the boat.

More fiberglass was applied to the now saucer shaped hole and then fairing compound (Bondo for boats) was applied over that so it could be sanded to create a smooth, even finished result.

Finally, a barrier coat was applied for added protection against salt water, the inside painted, and the hole was no more.  Now I just need to put a few coats of bottom paint on and this task will be complete.

While he was working, I noticed a few other small voids in the bottom of the boat where the keels and skegs attach and had him fair over and barrier coat them as well.  It may have been a bit of overkill, but small holes going through the gelcoat seemed like a bad thing to me and since he had most of the materials handy, it made sense to me to get them done too.

With all the little patches, I'm debating putting one coat of bottom paint over everything after adding a few coats to the patches even though the existing bottom paint is in pretty good shape outside of the repair areas and a few chips.  I hope that Rover appreciates the care and work going into her.

A Tale of Two Holes

In case you haven't guessed yet, I'm back on our boat in Deltaville VA.  After the boat show, my wife and I came down to try and get some work done on the boat.  My wife flew back to our house earlier today (can't really call it home anymore...more of our things we intend to keep are  now on the boat) and I needed to take a break so I thought I would try to catch up on my blog writing.

Of course, right now even writing posts is a bit of a challenge.  One of the holes I mentioned in the title is the technology black hole of Deltaville.  The Stingray Point Boatyard, where Rover is currently on the hard, has internet access...but only if you are within about 2 feet of the office building.  Even my Wirie, that can pick up a number of locked signals in the area, can't get a reliable connection to their access point.  And forget about using my cell phone.  Unless you have Verizon (the most expensive wireless carrier in my experience) you are lucky to get any voice coverage and no 2G internet access.

So, sometimes I'll go sit on the chair in front of the office with my tablet in the evenings...until the mosquitoes chase me away.  Or I go to Patti's Diner, who has WiFi, to read some news, research my tasks, look for parts, and upload posts.

If atmospheric conditions are just right, I can occasionally get a local TV channel for news...but most of the time the digital TV is doing it's best Max Headroom impression.  It really is a technology/information black hole around here.  On the bright side, I guess I'm not getting barraged by all the political ads that are probably plaguing the country right now.

The other hole is a hole in the boat.  One of the tasks I left for the boatyard was the replacement of two through hull valves that were seized or otherwise inoperative.  After some other labor snafus and after reading about other Leopard boats that were having electrolysis issues with their through hulls, I decided we would take care of all the through hulls when we got back to the boat.

There's a hole in the boat dear Liza...

I ordered about a thousand dollars worth of bronze parts to replace all the through hulls such that they would arrive at the boat the same day we did.  When we got to the boat, I tried disassembling one of the through hull and seized valves and, as expected, corrosion had essentially welded the parts together.  So, out came the grinder and I was able to remove the entire through hull/valve assembly.  In the process of grinding out the through hull, I was able to determine that my bronze fittings weren't suffering from the same issues that others had experienced so I shouldn't have to replace all the other through hulls now.  So far, so good...but it is a boat so we know that will probably change.

Cut out through-hull and valve

And, it did.  I ordered the shortest through hull I could find and dry-fitting the new parts revealed that they simply would not fit.  The through hull itself is just too long and as a result the valve will not fit under the floor.  I tried all sorts of configurations but it just wouldn't work.  So, I decided we had nothing to lose and cut down one of the through hulls so it would fit.

Here is where we get into the semi-technical explanation of NPS and NPT threads.  Through hulls are typically NPS (straight) threaded so they will mate with nuts or seacocks and can clamp to any thickness of hull (a nut can spin all the way down the threads).  NPT is a tapered thread that only tightens so far before binding and forming a seal. Since there isn't enough clearance between the hull and the floor board, the Leopard through hull goes straight into a 90 degree elbow and then a valve is attached to it.  The elbows are only available with NPT (tapered pipe) threads.  Since many manufacturers are going to this configuration, some through hulls now have a combination thread so the very end of the through hull is NPT and the remaining thread is NPS.

By cutting down the through hull, I removed the NPT threaded end.  I knew this would likely be an issue, but didn't really have much of an option.  Now the elbow would only screw on about a turn and a half before the straight threads would bind in the NPT threaded elbow.  Not a safe option for something that, if it gives way, leaves a 1.5 inch hole in the bottom of the boat.  What I need is to be able to re-thread the through hull so it would again have the NPT tapered thread on the end.  In theory, this should be do-able.  In reality, not so much.  You see, pipe threaders apparently expect a long straight pipe to be inserted in them and the now 2.25 inch long through hull with the mushroom head on one end won't fit in any reasonable pipe threader.

I spent a good couple days trying to find options to get the tapered threads cut, but had little luck.  One machine shop in town said he could setup one of his machines to do it, but it would be several hours of labor to setup the machine and the cost was rather prohibitive...not to mention the hassle if when we ever need to replace the thing again and don't have access to a well equipped machine shop.

Doing a little more research, I found that most people that have had to deal with these through hulls have simply gotten rid of them.  The through hull is the direct discharge for the head and the boat is designed so you can direct discharge through the holding tank so it is somewhat superfluous.  And getting rid of a 1.5" hole in the bottom of the boat is generally a good thing, so I think we will be glassing over the hole and changing the plumbing.  Just wish I had decided this before I bought all the parts and replaced all the hose.

Hopefully I'll get the work that needs to be done finished soon, as the chill in the night air indicates I really need to be heading south.  Of course, with my wife back in Colorado, I need to see if I can find a hand with that task too.