Thanks, Judy, for your insight. I should have checked out your webpages before even asking. But it is nice to comiserate with someone who has gone through this whole ordeal. So, did you coin the term "volcano" for this mass of fiberglass holding the through hull nipple? Its apt, its fitting and I'm sure it can erupt with dire consequences. I just have this mental block about drilling a fresh new and bigger hole into the hull, but I know its got to be done.
I'm in the process of ordering a copy of This Old Boat now. Thanks again. Brad ----- Original Message ----- From: Judith Blumhorst, DC To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 10:28 PM Subject: Re: catalina27-talk: Through hull fittngs??? anyone? You're not daft. But Catalina did some daft things to their boats back in those early years -- like the thru hull fittings, if you can call them that. Just as you describe, they fiberglassed bronze nipples right into the hull. Then they put gate valves on top of the nipples. All that instead of installing proper seacocks. Those blobs of fiberlass and bronze nipple have their own nickname: the "volcanos". It's highly recommended that you replace them with properly installed seacocks. Here's a page that describes and has pictures of how the yard did it on my 1977 C27, and cites some references to a couple of good boat maintenance manuals. http://www.blumhorst.com/catalina27/albums/1st-haul-out/1st-haulout-day3.htm Judy B "Bijou", a 1977 C27 Tall Rig, #3459 Sailing San Francisco Bay, CA ----- Original Message ---- From: iicaptbrad <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Saturday, July 19, 2008 9:55:30 PM Subject: catalina27-talk: Through hull fittngs??? anyone? Hey Folks, I was replacing my non-functioning gate vales on my through hull fittings with ball valves today while hauled out for paint on my recently aquired 1976 C27. I knew I would be in for some suprises after looking at them for a few months while waiting to haul out. Does anyone have an idea of the types or methods Catalina used to install holes under the waterline through the years? On mine, they basically fiberglassed in a 3-1/2" nipple into the hull and put a gate valve on top of that. The fiberglass is built up around the nipple so you can't get a wrench on any part of the nipple. I knew twisting the old valve without holding whatever the adjoining threads were on would most likely twist whatever (I didn't know at the time) was fiberglassed into the hull. Well, I soaked the threads below the valve with penetrating oil, put my wrench to it easy and something started turning right off. Whew, I thought. It turned out, though, I was twisting the whole nipple out of the fiberglass. Bummer, I then thought. But then I found that some sort of threaded fitting was fiberglassed in right at the outer surface of the hull that the nipple screwed into at the water. Didn't know what to think then. I'm not familiar with fiberglass boat construction that much having been a wooden boat owner in a previous life, but this seemed a bit screwy to me. I guess I'm just used to the old mushroomed through hull fittings that you calk and tighten in with a flang. They leave the nub on the hull, of course, where the type on my C27 is perfectly flush, good for racing, I guess. But it seems designed to be impossible to replace an old valve at some point... not a whole lot of forsight there. The guy at West Marine, the second guy they called, the supposed expert, thought me daft and this couldn't possibly be the original instalation. I havn't quite decided yet if West Marine guys are any better than Home Depot guys in their areas of expertise. Sooooooooo.., anyway... what I did was got a 5 inch nipple to leave me some room to hold the nipple while twising it in and while twisting other stuff on top of it and got it threaded in just fine into the 3-inch cone of fiberglass and whatever threaded fitting was embedded in it. I applied some calk on the outside of the nipple, but this was just a leftover auto reaction to my wooden boat days as no calk was apparent in the original. Does this seem logical or am I looking for trouble? Should I cut out the old, reglass and install a more conventional fitting? Or is this actually a conventional fitting for fiberglass boats. Boat is still out of the water so I don't know if I'm water tight. Looks pretty, though. Just thought I'd get your slant on all this as you folks seem to know the ins and outs of C27's complete with anectodes. Thanks in advance ofr any help. Brad Noah's Ark, Hull #2271 San Diego, CA
