Replacement thru hull/seacock in typhoon

[wingreen]

I've never used Marelon, but I read on some other sailor discussions that they have a reputation for breaking. Specifically, the handle breaks off, which means the whole thing becomes pretty useless. Otherwise they seem to be fine.

I put Spartans on my Ty. However, the Spartans don't fit well into the small space, and the boat guy had to grind a lot of the bronze base off the bottom before it would fit. He did a really good job, and I'm pretty confident that it will work. However, there is an issue with the Ty - the thru-hulls are in a position where the cabin floor is epoxied to the hull, so it's not possible to move the thru-hulls inboard a little more to make most seacocks fit without modifications. This is why the boat guy had to grind the seacock to fit in the same space previously occupied by the original gate valves.

[Sea Hunt]

I think I have decided that this Fall, assuming S/V Tadpole is not sold, I will replace my current seacocks with Groco seacocks; what Groco refers to as: Full Flow In-Line Ball Valves: Bronze. http://www.groco.net/

They look very similar to what is on S/V Tadpole now. I believe the seacocks on her are the original bronze seacocks from Cape Dory factory installation.

Question: What is the correct replacement size (pipe diameter) seacock I want to avoid either having to enlarge the current two hull holes or having to fiberglass over them and start new. I just want to remove the current seacocks and install identical new ones.

Thanks very much.

P.S. Tried to get out sailing today. Sailflow projected 10-12 kts steady through most of the day. Just as I started getting sails ready, etc., a large, strong front came through. Winds went from 10-12 kts to 20-25 kts in less than a minute. Good thing I was still on the mooring. Sometimes I think that if not for bad luck I would not have any luck at all.

[Maine Sail]

I've never used Marelon, but I read on some other sailor discussions that they have a reputation for breaking. Specifically, the handle breaks off, which means the whole thing becomes pretty useless.

Interestingly enough this quote below was just posted yesterday on the Catalina 36 forum. (I used to own one)

Last night we were closing up the boat after a week long cruise, and I tried to shut off the galley seacock. We are always diligent about closing the seacocks when we leave the boat. But no good deed goes unpunished.

I turned the handle on the Forespar Marelon seacock and it broke off in my hand. Worse, a solid stream of water began to gush from the hole where the handle fit.

This is not what I would call a "fail safe" design. I imediately pulled out the under sink drawer and put the handle back into the hole. This slowed down the water flow to a trickle, but I could not use the handle to turn the ball to the closed position.

I have personally had Forespar handles break off but not had the water spewing in. New ones are supposed to be better but I have gone back to bronze..

[Carl Thunberg]

I like the idea of the marelon seacocks. Is there any intrinsic reason why the body of the seacock couldn't be made of marelon but the handle and the spindle it attaches to couldn't be made of bronze or 316 Stainless? Is this solution just too obvious, or am I missing something? Obviously, there would need to be some mechanical fastener joining metal to plastic, but hey, we sent a Saturn Five rocket to the moon. This shouldn't be that hard.

[Troy Scott]

I think there are at least three versions of the Marelon seacocks. There is the one most often seen in West Marine, which I believe are the ones that break. Then there in the OEM version seen in new Hinckleys and other boats, which seems better. Recently I've seen photos of a new version unlike the other two. I'm assuming that this newest version is better (maybe just different) compared to the OEM version. I don't understand why the ones that break are still available. Why aren't the OEM valves on the shelves at West Marine? I don't have time to research this right now, so I'm just posting this as food for thought.