The Last Seacock

With the last seacock installed for the cockpit drains, I thought I'd show what I did to get it ready.

I have a sheet of G10 Fiberglass board, I used a couple hole saws to cut to size. Drilled holes for the bolts but then drilled out a larger size on the bottom to epoxy the bolts into place. I had a small tube of LifeCaulk on hand and used it to seal the threads. I think I used 4200 or Sikaflex 291 before but it should still work just the same.

One difficulty was having to use a couple wrenches to tighten the fittings together. Having the pieces already together helped for alignment when installed on the boat.

Really not a lot to it. This is the same way I prepared the other seacocks I've installed with new G10 backing boards.

There's sitll a couple old seacocks on the boat. I'd like to get rid of the one in the starting battery compartment. There's also one in the head under the counter top. Right now, if I tried doing that work, It would further delay getting the boat ready so they're going to wait right now.

Seacock Project - Complete

Today was a good day.

I found out that the carpet pieces are attached with Velcro strips. I was thinking to change them out sometime so this might be easier than I expected. This project can wait but I can still look and see what's available.

I continued the work on the water strainer. I attached the fittings to the strainer then the hoses. Since I ordered 2ft of 1/2" hose, I had to cut it down. I attached it to the pump on the engine first then ran it to the strainer for measurement.

When I attached the 3/4" hose, I filled the reservoir of the strainer with water to prime it, then got a bucket full of water and ran it through the engine. Engine started up right away and sounded quite nice.

I then cleaned up the thru-hull and flange base of the seacock. I marked off the area around the fiberglass base with tape. I used Sikaflex 291 for the base and the thru hull.

The following is pictures of the work.

 

 

 

 

Once the thru-hull and the seacock was mounted, I attached the hose with two new hose clamps. All the hose clamps I used were new. On the 3/4" hose, I used two on the seacock and the strainer input and on the 1/2" side, I used one on the strainer output and one on the raw water pump.

 

 

I'm happy this project is finally completed. I really hope everything holds together when getting the boat in the water.  This was an important project. I learned a lot about this project along the way and feels good to finally be done with it.

Raw Water Seacock, Installed!

Instead of going through several posts for each step along the way, I decided to make a post for the project as a whole. After seeing a loose thru-hull, I went ahead and worked on getting it replaced. Certainly don't want to sink the boat as soon as it gets in the water.