Thru hulls aplenty

[davb1947]

We spent last week in NY (10 drive each way) working on Molly in the boat barn. Brrrrrr! First time I’ve seen her out of the water. (We bought her last September, spent a week cleaning her up in October, and weren’t there for her haulout and winterization.) I counted 3 transducers for depth, 1 for speed, 11 thru hulls, and 8 waterline discharges. None of the seacocks moved. Several were under things that were fixed in place (two, for example, under the shelf built for the water heater). One hose attached to a frozen open seacock fell apart in our hands.

We serviced all the seacocks, cut access holes were needed, and diagramed all locations. The thought of searching for a seacock that was frozen open and inaccessible drove us on.

Battery cables were found to be crumbling away. Shorts just waiting to happen. No wonder boat fires are the number one cause of loss. Replaced cables. Plan to install fuses on them next time.

We pulled out bags of wires that connected to nothing, and discovered some very novel wiring. Traced wires and labeled as many as we could. Rewired a bunch of stuff.

Forty years of entropy works hard on these boats, but we’re reversing it by the application of large amounts of energy.

[Nancy]

That's a great start on critical systems!

Please remind me - where in NY is Molly now? How are you planning to transport home?

[jleonard]

The winter/spring that we bought our 40 I removed 4 thru hulls and glassed them up. 2 for raw water intake for the heads, 2 for toilet overboard discharge.
I changed the heads to use the onboard domestic water since we carry over 200 gallons. And we discharge into the holding tank and get pumped out so no need for useless thru hulls.
The next winter I replaced all remaining thru hulls because I don't like old $hit that's waiting to break.
I can't count high enough to know how many discharges I have, but I did add one for an additional bilge pump but it's well above the WL.
You won't regret changing those out. You'll sleep better.
Best of luck!

[jschomig]

I plan to operate an Albin 28 TE. My usual procedure is to close a boat's seacocks whenever it is not being used. I am not sure where the seacocks are located on these boats?

[Key2Cay]

We have a 1987 Albin 36 and you are so right about reversing years of entropy. I have several non-functioning thru hulls that need to be replaces are removed when I haul out early next year. Good luck with your repairs.