Opinions on Replacing Thru Hulls

[markvone]

Details of above waterline thru-hulls



I did a short haul to clean the bottom and check the zincs this week and got a close up look at the thru-hulls. The left picture is the smaller port side thru-hulls, right is the stbd manual bilge and engine exhaust. Three of the four are showing radial cracks dispite being flush versions, covered by gelcoat and located quite far under the tumblehome of the stern.

The below waterline thru-hulls all look fine but you can't see very much of them as they are covered by bottom paint. I'm going to replace them all when I haul this winter.

Mark

 

[jreddington]

While I have had no problems and see no indication of brittleness in my '84 through hulls, I am in the process of replacing them. As good as marlon is, there has to be some loss of strenght over the years. Fitting failure (like rigging) fails in the are you cannot see and inspect (unless you're pullling the through hulls anyway).

I prefer the marlon over bronze, soley because of the corrosion issue. If there is a bonding or stray current corrosion issue, a perfectly good bronze fitting can disintigrate in days. I've seen it happen too often although I know everyone on this board would do regular inspections. If I had a boat with bronze fittings, my eventual changeout would be to marelon.

 

[Bob Brigham]

Just replaced all through hulls and seacocks on my E 28 with bronze and fiberglass backing plates. It was expensive, but worth it in the long run...especially for off shore.