Typhoon Seacocks

[casampson]

Any advice on changing over the seacocks on my Typhoon? How do I know if they are due to be replaced? They turn all right, but seem a little soft or squirrelly. I'd rather get the boat in the water this year and deal with them during the off-season, but will replace them now if necessary. Thanks in advance for your help.

[ronkberg]

I've had two Typhoons and actually could do without ability to close. I sail mostly single handed and thus the small amount of water coming in when the rail is buried, drains when she sits more level. I did replace the gate valves on my '74 model to get safer ones as the gates were rusty. But the new ones were never closed.

I'd wait until winter and sail now.

Ron

[casampson]

Ron,

I appreciate the advice, but the gate valves on my boat are toast. The boat has been sitting for a decade, and I really don't trust them. They crunch when you turn them and no water drains from the cockpit. I feel have to replace them before I launch. When you did yours, did you replace the whole valve or just the core? Did you use gate valves, ball valves, or true seacocks? How the heck did you get the fittings loose?

Thanks for the reply.

Chris

[Steve Laume]

Chris, you definitely do not want gate vales. So that eliminates one of the options.

If you search this board you will find some posts where people have eliminated the seacocks for the cockpit drains on their Typhoons. That route makes for a very safe and simple drain system. Cockpit drains are almost never closed and the valves just complicate things. If you do go this route you will need to replace the through hull fittings with hose barbs instead of threads to get a secure hose connection. Use two clamps and good quality hose. You should also have softwood plugs available in close proximity to the drains.

The only down side to going this way is the possibility of water coming up through the drains if you have a lot of weight in the cockpit. Some people cross the hoses so they are higher when heeled. I never had a problem when sailing. If you are heeled that far you should probably reef and the cockpit will most likely be wet from slop and spray anyway.

I did close the seacocks one time when we had four adults in the cockpit enjoying a shore side concert and some dinner. Everyone was sitting far enough aft that we gained about 1/2" of water above the sole. We moved forward and I closed the seacocks to stop it. We could have just as well moved a bit closer to the front of the cockpit but part of the reason I closed the seacocks was to demonstrate to my guest that we were not in danger of sinking. We were not, even if I had left them open but we would have had to sit there with wet toes. This was a pretty unusual situation.

If I was in your situation I would pitch everything you have now and just install barbed through hulls with good hose, pick up a couple of tapered soft wood plugs and forget and enjoy the safety and simplicity of your boat, Steve.

[Russell]

I would never launch a boat with gate valves, much less ones that are over 30 year old.

[Sea Hunt Video]

If you search this board you will find some posts where people have eliminated the seacocks for the cockpit drains on their Typhoons. That route makes for a very safe and simple drain system. Cockpit drains are almost never closed and the valves just complicate things. If you do go this route you will need to replace the through hull fittings with hose barbs instead of threads to get a secure hose connection. Use two clamps and good quality hose. You should also have softwood plugs available in close proximity to the drains. Steve.

I am a rookie about all of this but that is how my Ty Weekender was set up. The PO removed the seacocks (if there were any originally) and installed hoses. I only had to change out the hoses to get a more direct gravity drain from the cockpit and avoid an "air lock". Worked great. As Steve recommended, I keep two wood plugs tied to each hose for quick "plugging" if needed.

[casampson]

Thanks to all for the advice. I've looked at the archives and come to the (gulp) decision that I'm going to go straight from thru-hull to hose, eliminating the valves entirely. Seems like the simplest solution. I'm just afraid I won't find new thru-hulls that will fit the original holes in the hull. I'm not going to want to do any drilling...

On the other hand, I might change my mind and put in some in-line bronze ball valves after all, but I'm confused. The ones for sale are all NPT threaded, while I'm sure the existing bronze thru-hull is NPS. How do I make that work? I suppose a call into Jamestown Distributors might be in order.

Thanks again.

Chris

[ronkberg]

Hi Chris, I agree with your decision to go w/o any valves. However, I will answer your questions for future reference.

"When you did yours, did you replace the whole valve or just the core? Did you use gate valves, ball valves, or true seacocks? How the heck did you get the fittings loose?"

I installed seacocks in my '74 and needed two large pipe wrenches to remove the gate valves. Also had to increase the torque by adding a 3ft lead pipe to the external tool that inserts into the valve. The new seacocks were slightly larger and I had to file the hole to fit it. I then used 3M5200 to seal them from leaks......but should have used 3M4200, in case they need to be removed. Oh well, I sold the boat a couple of years later and the new owner can deal with the 3M5200.........yuk, yuk!

Put the new hoses in and go sailing.......

Later, Ron

[Markst95]

Marelon thru hulls to sanitary hose. Has worked great for the last 5 years. I did enlarge the holes for better drainage.

[casampson]

One more question. If I eliminate the valve altogether, do I need to use the barbed thru-hulls designed specifically to attach to hose, or can I attach my hose to the threaded bronze thru-hulls that are in place? These have a couple of inches of threads to work with.

Thanks.

Chris

[Markst95]

For your own peace of mind you really need to use a barbed fitting.

[Paul D.]

This is from a 1998 response to a posted request when I needed to replace my Typhoon HORNET's gate valves.

Try this:
All sizes are ¾”
West Marine Part # Part
402570 bronze thru-hull
106783 45 degree bronze “ell”, Female to Male
195420 “Apollo” brand bronze ball valve
113003 Grocco full flow tailpiece (uses 1” ID hose)
282285 1” ID hose (buy a 3’ section)
115655 8 ea. #316 Stainless hose clamps (don’t use the cheap
price ones – they rust too quick; and double clamp hoses at both ends)

Put in in parts order (ell between thru-hull and ball valve) with teflon plumber’s tape. I used 3M5200 on the thru-hull to hull joint. Total cost three years ago was about $120, and the scuppers will drain long leaf pine needles right through. Took about two easy hours once I figured out the parts (which took days to do). You might want to put all the bronze together before tightening the thru-hull coller so you can make sure the ball valve levers can clear everything and test for full-open to full-close lever swing. Good luck.

I have shared it with many people doing the same job. I used 4200 instead of 5200 though which I think would be better to the next owner and thus buy you some boatwork karma. HORNET is now owned by my friend and the installation has served very well. I would consider the seacock in case you accidentally slice a hose. At the very least, I would have stout wooden plugs handy in case something came adrift at the wrong time.

[Skeep]

Markst95, I used a similar plastic hose to replace the automotive grade black hoses which were silently doing the job on my Ty since I purchased her in Dec 2012. I thought I'd upgrade to a nicer color and found a similar hosing as yours ( but obviously not similar in capability, only appearance ) yet after installation I checked on my new installation before setting sail and noticed I was taking on water below!

Yikes, ran to the store and got some good ole rubber hose and stopped the crisis for the day.

I had purchased the white plastic hosing from West Marine. Problem: the hoses could not get a seamless connection with the fittings from the cockpit and were slowly dripping water into the hold. So, as my levered sea cocks are doing just fine, I have gone back to the black rubber hoses which I do not prefer until I can find a suitable product for reinstallation.

Photo just before my bright idea took hold:

[Skeep]

Now I reveal what my OCD finally arrived at:



This is common braided clear rubber. I want to see what is blocked in there if possible. It is 1 3/8" tubing, easy to cut with an exacto knife. Due to the angle, a bit shorter is better.

I used my tiny ratchet to grab tight. Now I feel below-decks is more suitable. At least I feel that way. LOL

[casampson]

Thanks for the advice and the helpful photos...

Bought my 3/4 inch bronze seacocks from Jamestown Distributors today. Not only are they expensive -- $56 each -- they are huge and will barely fit. Some boating friends at a party convinced not to go without a shut-off valve, but now I'm not so sure. The seacocks seem like overkill for such a small, simple boat. There's the third option of installing in-line valves instead of the seacocks, but all this talk about not mixing NPT with NPS threads has me totally confused. Meanwhile, my boat is still in the driveway.