installing a thruhull while in the water

[StanDSmith]

anyone have experience with installing a thruhull intake by using a diver. I need another thruhull early this spring and am not scheduling a haul out until mid summer.

Stan

[Ian McColgin]

Personally, I hate to get the wood all wet and try to get the seal right, so I'd either creen her over to expose the spot or run aground (easy for me to say) and do it on the tide.

I suppose you could put a plunger cup over the outside, held in place as the seal will break, and then drill from the inside. Then hold a patch on the inside while your diver puts the outer part of the unit on (goobered liberally with some seal that is water friendly) and replaces the plunger cup. Then start the seacock from the inside till you catch the threads. Have the diver remove the cup again and get the special spanner on the outer flange and turn like hell while you hold the inside alligned and keep a towel around it all to keep the streams of water from spurting too far. . . .

We did a seacock replacement on a tug that went about like this but it was easy to finish up with the tourch to perfect the seal.

As I say, run her aground and relax at the job. You can do this at a dock and you don't need, may not even want if it's really mucky, to go to bare ground - just low enough that the space can be reached comfortably sitting in a dink and you have a hour or so to bungle along. Alongside a pier, lay her a bit to the pier and lash the masts to something big ashore so she doesn't fall over the wrong way.

G'luck

[Mike Vogdes]

You can probably get a short haul for what your going to spend on a diver. My marina will lift you out of the water and let you sit in the slings during lunch hour for a reduced rate.

[Donn]

No way to branch off the plumbing of an existing intake?

[Rocky]

My brother will do it for free. You want double-O-buck or 44 magnum? :D

[ 03-26-2003, 07:27 PM: Message edited by: Rocky ]

[Bob Cleek]

Why not just throw a length of hose with a weight on it over the side for a couple of months until haul out time? LOL Actually, unless you are talking about an underwater welding job on a ship, it isn't cost effective to have a diver do the job on a wooden hull, nor is it advisable. Too many hassles and things that can go wrong. Sure, you could keep her from sinking in such an event, but the object is to get the job done. A "short haul" in the slings, as said, is clearly the preferred way to go.

[ahp]

Stan, how big is your boat? If I were doing it on the cheap, and many of us are, letting her go dry, or partly so, on a nice mudbank at low tide sounds like the way to go.

[Thaddeus J. Van Gilder]

I never did a through hull, but have done shafts.

It takes a couple of guys on the out side and one on the inside and a comunicator on deck.

It's not too hard.

[brad9798]

Here's a link from the same/similar question I asked a couple of years back ...

sea cocks (http://media5.hypernet.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=001561&p=)

Brad