# stuck seacocks



## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

One problem the surveyor found in the 29.9 I'm buying is that some of the seacocks are seized up. These are bronze doohickies with sliding cones. Can a stuck seacock be freed while while the boat is in the water without risk of the seacock coming apart?


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

If they are seized, you will probably have to pull the boat to replace them. I don't know if it is worth trying to free them, as they may also have corrosion problems as well. Check the material by scraping it and seeing what color it is. If the metal is pinkish, that may mean that the zinc has leached out of the alloy, leaving it relatively weak.


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## redcorvette1995 (Jun 16, 2005)

You can try the following while in the water.
Borrow a couple of large electric kettles.
Fill them up and let them boil.
Pour the Water down the drain, cockpit scupper or where ever you have your stuck seacock. Refill the kettles and do it again. Then once more. Now take a rubber headed mallot and bang on the seacock handle with repeated soft to medium hard blows. Chances are it will move. When it does work it back and forth until it is nice and loose again. Then greese it and you are done.

This works because heat rises.
The hotest water stays in the pipe you pour it into and the heat is absorbed by the bronze of the seacock causing it to expand. This often causes the parts to unseize. This works best for bronze seacocks, but can also be useful for marlon and others.

Todd


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## FrankLanger (Dec 27, 2005)

Can someone explain how you grease a seacock while the boat is in the water? I have always taken the seacock apart while the boat is on land, and then greasing it, but now have a boat that stays in the water year round. How can I maintain the seacocks properly without hauling? (I know I need to haul the boat periodically to re-do bottom paint and other maintenance, but want to do whatever I can while the boat is still in the water).
Thanks,
Frank.


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## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

I'd like to know too.

BTW, the surveyor discovered that the handles are missing from some of the seacocks in the boat I just bought. (I haven't been able to look since then because I won't have access till the check clears.) What's the best substitute?


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## Blue Eagle (Jun 29, 2006)

Hi All,

If you're lucky enough to have proper bronze tapered sea cocks fitted to your boat (or to your putative boat. as it may be) don't try to re-fit them with the boat still in the water.

Once out of the water, you can back off the locknut and adjusting nut with the right sized spanner (or a carefully adjusted monkey-wrench (as opposed to a pair of mole-grips)) and tap the end of the thread to loosen the barrel in its sleeve, before tapping the handle to break the torsional seal and withdrawing the barrel.

Once withdrawn, inspect the barrel for "coppering" - see Sailingdog's post above -and if it looks ok, polish it and the inside of the seacock's bore with fine wet-and-dry sandpaper.

refit the barrel in its sleeve with petroleum jelly (vaseline) or a similar high-density grease - anti-corrosive greases are available - and re-tighten the packing flange and locknut. the handle should be stiff to move, but not excessively awkward (I speak as a 200lb male, so for lighter builds, it should be moveable with a box-spanner over the handle and leverage of about 8-10 inches. Protect your knuckles with cotton working gloves (or similar) or you will surely bark them!).

Shut the valve, and upon relaunching, whip around the through-hull fittings and make sure they're not leaking. Any which are, tighten, and for those which aren't and are stiff, loosen the lock and backing nuts 1/8 turn before re-locking and trying again.

Finally, if you're replacing through-hull fittings, don't even dream of usinf plastic fittings, they're far too easy to break accidentally - and don't use ball valve fittings, the spigot that turns them can snap off in the ball meaning you can't shut them off.\

Employ the tried-and-true transverse tapered cone fittings (Groco) or the old-fashioned-but-still-effective in-line tapered cone fittings which can be re-ground and re-fitted in situ. they sometimes leak (a very little, and mine are 30 years old) but they abide by the KISS principle, and can be refitted at sea. By banging a bung in the hole from overboard!

see also: http://www.swainsons.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=5&pos=7 - for a sorry looking vale with handle pointing directly upwards (ie in the open position)

best,

Matt


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## Blue Eagle (Jun 29, 2006)

oh.. and opolgies for the smelling nistakes!


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

BTW, anhydrous lanolin or Lanocote works quite well on seacocks, and is almost impossible to wash off..


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## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

Not sure what you mean by "re-fit" here. Somebody in the Bristol Yahoo group said she freed a stuck seacock while her boat was afloat by tapping with a mallet after applying Liquid Wrench. Would it be too risky to try that or the boiling-water method while the boat is in the water? Do I understand you correctly that it's OK to loosen the nuts by 1/8 turn without hauling the boat?



Blue Eagle said:


> If you're lucky enough to have proper bronze tapered sea cocks fitted to your boat (or to your putative boat. as it may be) don't try to re-fit them with the boat still in the water. Once out of the water, you can back off the locknut and adjusting nut with the right sized spanner (or a carefully adjusted monkey-wrench (as opposed to a pair of mole-grips)) and tap the end of the thread to loosen the barrel in its sleeve, before tapping the handle to break the torsional seal and withdrawing the barrel.
> Shut the valve, and upon relaunching, whip around the through-hull fittings and make sure they're not leaking. Any which are, tighten, and for those which aren't and are stiff, loosen the lock and backing nuts 1/8 turn before re-locking and trying again.





Blue Eagle said:


> Employ the tried-and-true transverse tapered cone fittings (Groco) or the old-fashioned-but-still-effective in-line tapered cone fittings which can be re-ground and re-fitted in situ. they sometimes leak (a very little, and mine are 30 years old) but they abide by the KISS principle, and can be refitted at sea. By banging a bung in the hole from overboard!


Holy cow, you mean those tapered wooden plugs won't hold unless they're hammered in from the outside?! Yikes!


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

wumhenry said:


> Holy cow, you mean those tapered wooden plugs won't hold unless they're hammered in from the outside?! Yikes!


That's why the plugs are supposed to have a hole drilled through the fattest section and a piece of line attached to them. So you can tie them into place until they absorb enough water and swell up. Needless to say, the plugs need to be kept bone-dry until used.


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## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

You mean they can work when inserted from inside, provided you tie em down?



sailingdog said:


> That's why the plugs are supposed to have a hole drilled through the fattest section and a piece of line attached to them. So you can tie them into place until they absorb enough water and swell up. Needless to say, the plugs need to be kept bone-dry until used.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

Yup... that's actually how they're intended to work.

_It is a least a little unwise to spend the time getting overboard the ship and under it, while water is pouring in through an stuck open through hull,_ don't ya think...


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## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

Depends on the situation. Might be a good move if the vessel is being attacked by a giant squid like the one that took on the Nautilus in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"!


sailingdog said:


> _It is a least a little unwise to spend the time getting overboard the ship and under it, while water is pouring in through an stuck open through hull,_ don't ya think...


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

wumhenry said:


> Depends on the situation. Might be a good move if the vessel is being attacked by a giant squid like the one that took on the Nautilus in "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea"!


So you think being in the water with a large sea monster is preferable to being in a boat being attacked by the large sea monster... I'd want the "crunchy shell" around me...maybe it'll decide the shell is too crunchy, and go find something more nourishing to eat.


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## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

*squid issue*

But what if it's feeling around inside for edible flesh and you neglected to stow an axe aboard for use in case of encounter with giant cephalopod? I mean, c'mon, get real!


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

But I do carry an axe aboard my boat, and a few other things that would make life difficult for bad people, large sea predators, etc.


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## Blue Eagle (Jun 29, 2006)

*All joking aside....*

What I said about tapping the bungs in from outside the boat applies only if you want to re-fit your seacocks with the boat still in the water... The conventional reason to have them on board is in case one of them shears off the hull flange. You then need something to stop up the hole with, and yes, you'd then wallop a wooden bung into the hole - with a mallet - from inside.

My understanding of the reason for the string is that is enables you to tie the bung to the seacock it'll plug - thereby saving time hunting for the right sized bung when it breaks.

Cheers, Matt


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## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

*ah, so!*

OK, I get it now. thanks


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## hellosailor (Apr 11, 2006)

"That's why the plugs are supposed to have a hole drilled through the fattest section and a piece of line attached to them. So you can tie them into place until they absorb enough water and swell up."
That's news to me. Every reference to damage control plugs ("tampons" in french) that I've read has said to TIE THE PLUG TO THE FITTING YOU PLAN TO USE IT ON, so that if you need to use the plug, it will be right at hand where you need it. The last thing you want to do is fool around with four plugs, at night, under a foot of icy water, trying to figure out which one is the right size for a leaking thruhull.
The plugs are normally cut from soft wood, so they will deform and plug the hole instantly and then very quickly swell up and stay in place.

Tying or wedging them in place afterwards sounds nice...nice the hole and string are there so you can secure them "at hand" to the thru-hull.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

If you've got six feet of water pressure pushing a plug out of place—then add pounding seas to the basic water pressure that the plug will be fighting, don't you think that tieing it into place makes sense... 

Yes, the string can be used to tie it to the thruhull that it is designed to plug... but even softwoods take some time to absorb water and swell up.


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## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

sailingdog said:


> If you've got six feet of water pressure pushing a plug out of place-then add pounding seas to the basic water pressure that the plug will be fighting, don't you think that tieing it into place makes sense...


I'll try to remember that, in case I ever have a boat with a six-foot draft and through-hulls at the bottom of the keel.


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## sailingdog (Mar 19, 2006)

wumhenry said:


> I'll try to remember that, in case I ever have a boat with a six-foot draft and through-hulls at the bottom of the keel.


This is called hyperbole.... exxagerating to make a point, but maybe you're too slow to recognize it.  Even three feet of water has a fairly considerable head to it.


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## wumhenry (Mar 29, 2006)

Hey, how could I pass up a straight line like that?



sailingdog said:


> This is called hyperbole.... exxagerating to make a point, but maybe you're too slow to recognize it.


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