In for a Penny, in for a Pound

With Ripley on the hard, we have a limited time to get all of our projects done. This is how Shane and I found ourselves spending both days this weekend at the boat, working on projects.

When we started, we knew we wanted to tackle the structurally important, immediate priority items - things that can only be done while the boat is out of the water. This included un-freezing all frozen seacocks. So, the first thing we did was take an inventory of all thru-hulls on the boat:

We sorted them in to various categories, and focused on the subset of them that we couldn’t operate by hand. Of the 10 thru-hulls with seacocks, 5 of them fell into this category. We decided to focus on the 4 in this category that were still in use: the shower drain, the waste out drain, and both cockpit drains.

The first one we tackled was the shower drain - it’s reasonably accessible, and is at the water line. We used PB Blaster to try to free the frozen valves, but they didn’t budge. We eventually resorted to using a pipe wrench on the bronze fittings. This worked well to rotate the nut on the cone valves, but the cone was still stuck inside. Unfortunately, we ended up bending the rod and ruining the threads before we were able to remove the cone. So far, valves: 1, us: 0.

After this, we took on the waste out valve. We were worried this one was going to be gross - who knows how many years worth of old poo were stuck in the lines - but it turned out to be relatively tame. We managed to remove and service the cone without damaging it.

The third seacock we serviced was the starboard cockpit drain. We used the same approach, and with time and patience, the cone came out for us to service.

Finally, it was time for the last cockpit drain, the one behind the bulkhead, making it the hardest one to reach. Shane was doing his finest boat yoga poses, when I heard “Oh fuck” come from the back compartment. Not something you want to hear on a boat project day :)

He handed me this:

This is the broken end of the threaded rod on our port side cockpit drain seacock, with the nut still attached. At this point it was clear - we’ve broken two seacocks, so the only way we can go back in the water is if we replace them. The only way forward is through.

Shane removed the old bronze seacocks so we could measure them and order the correct replacement parts (more pictures here). We’ve ordered the parts, and will be installing them in the coming days.