How would you block a broken seacock or sterngland?

TQA said:
For the stern gland I would try a strip of cotton, my dressing gown belt might do, and apply the thickest grease I could find before wrapping a few turns around the shaft and then pressing it into the gland.

I see a product idea here, a pregreased strip in a little tub and some cable ties to hold it in place when applied.
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A thought. Motor factors used to do a split CV coupling item, sort of one size fits all emergency repair item. Wonder if carrying one of those would be worth it! Some are glue together and some are bolt together.

Carrying a spare seal would mean splitting the gearbox / shaft coupling pushing the shaft back and getting the new seal on but a split one .......

How about trying to do a seal replacement whilst in the water on the test boat! Could be a right laugh especially with the health and safety blokes looking on!
 
nimbusgb said:
How about pulling a sail under the hull so that it covers the hole ( log, forward sonar, fridge heat exchanger ) it would only work in one or two places but might be worth trying as an exercise.
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I reckon there are better alternatives for a through-hull failure so you wouldn't do this in the real world, but I agree it would be good to try in the Crash Test Boat. A sail over the outside is a standard answer for a crack / split in the hull (wooden bungs, plastic plugs and carrots no good for that) and it would be interesting to see how easy it is to get into position and how much it slows down the water ingress.

Unless you really are planning to crash the boat at the end of the series, in which case you can save the sail-fothering till you have a real crack to cover!

Pete
 
I have heard a good size hock of ham will block a fair size hole from the inside.. not sure if better unwrapped or still in it's wrapping though. Perhaps a really big ham and you could put the floorboards down and they would just squash it into place..
 
Martin_J said:
I have heard a good size hock of ham will block a fair size hole from the inside.. not sure if better unwrapped or still in it's wrapping though. Perhaps a really big ham and you could put the floorboards down and they would just squash it into place..
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Thanks for the suggestion, but could we calm the horses and just stick to ickle holes for the moment?

The ham in a hole time will come ;)
 
Firstly I have an alarm which sounds when either of the two auto pumps starts up, early bird gets the squirt.
For No 1, I have wooden bungs, alternativly I would ask someone to hold their foot/hand over the hole, I also carry a square peice of a rubber type sheet with an extreemly sticky adhesive on one side which is reputed to be able to adhere to wet surfaces.
For No 2, I would use a length of suitable sized rope packed in with grease and held with cable ties, other than that I would take a handful of brown Plumbers mate from the back of my pants and try that!!!!:eek::eek::eek::D
 
NorthUp said:
Denso tape, available from good builders merchants. Filthy to work with but does the job!
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We used to carry foil covered Denso for use on canoes when white water touring. But you have to be able to reach the hole from the outside, even slight water pressure will push it off. :eek:

You could back it with a plywood plate & bracing strut I guess. One of the famous sailing writers did quite a bit of this to get to a safe harbour for repairs, but I can't remember who it was now.
 
On a wooden boat I would swim down under the seacock with an inverted bucket full of sawdust, then flip the bucket up and release the now wet sawdust into the hole plugging it!

Or is that just a wifes tale :o
 
I once bothered to turn a bung, bored a hole down the middle the shaft diameter and then sawed it in half length ways. At the thin end it was 2-3mm wide going up to 6mm at the fat end. Thank fully never had to use it but did have a packing gland on a length of rubber hose and figured if it split could slide this out the way and insert the bung.

Have used a candle to plug the hole in a blakes seacock whilst applying some grease to the cone.

Also remember as a boy reading that for a small hole/split a sharp knife projected out of the hole will keep water out if the boat can be kept moving forward (Probably from something like the yachtsmans Vade Mecum).

Also what about something like the sticksLikePooh waterproof stuff from a builders merchant? Claims it will set in the wet or 5minute polyurethane, or the squirty foam?
 
Sooooo may I ask when are you doing the tests, and when are they due to be published?

I have a leaky stern gland [http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=272491], and although I'm relatively sure that it will be okay until the end of the season ...I might be casually interested in what the best course of action would be in the event that I'm just a wee bit mistaken.

In your own time ...tum-te-tum ; )
 
I was told that it is not ideal to keep a bung tied to every through hull. They are made of wood that will swell when immersed so it better to keep them dry until needed.

Some of my through-hulls are of a bigger diameter than the bungs one gets in a commercial packet. Fortunately a friendly forumnite turned me so extra large bungs for emergency use. Wonder why one cannot get big bungs commercially?

My concern is that the hole would be an odd shape and not easily bunged up.

I do have a wooded mallet for hammering a bung home, that lives with the bungs

TS
 
Tommyrot said:
A few years ago, OK, a long while ago. Driving a Ford Transit.

I drove over what I thought was a piece of tree branch, it was a piece of exhaust pipe....:(

It put a hole in the fuel tank, about half way up. Plugged it with a potato held in place with an empty plastic bottle and a length of wire a few times around the tank.

Drove it like that for a couple of weeks before I could get a new tank. :D
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A few years ago when it was still Yugoslavia, we drove down to Banjaluca in one of the BMW company cars down what was called a "main road" as opposed to motorway. Needless to say in the middle, 100kms from anywhere, it was unmade up and rough as hell with furrows bigger than in a ploughed field. Anyway, we made it to Banaluca but the next morning there was an enourmous pool of oil underneath the car. The sump was split. All 5 litres of oil from the engine had poured out. It was a bank holiday weekend, everything was closed for 3 more days. And you don;t want to spend your free time in Banjaluca!

Anyway, we fixed it with chewing gum. It worked so well, that even when back in Austria we did not take the car to be fixed - it didn't even drip!

Several months later, when it went it for its regular service, they did change the oil sump.
 
michaelchapman said:
(snip)Anyway, we fixed it with chewing gum. It worked so well, that even when back in Austria we did not take the car to be fixed - it didn't even drip!

Several months later, when it went it for its regular service, they did change the oil sump.
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I tried the chewing gum trick on a motorbike split petrol tank. It didn't work, it disolved quite quickly. My dad soldered it for me when I got home using a petrol blowlamp :eek: & sticks of plumbers' solder.

BTW, I now what you mean about Banjaluca, we had a project manager jailed there after a road accident. Not a nice experience. But I liked the Croatian Coast road - we had a BMW coupe. :cool:
 
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snooks said:
We have a forklift to make a big hole already booked :D

:rolleyes:
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A forklift? You've got some of the world's greatest specialists at making holes in boaty things at Poole and plenty more enthusiastic experts scattered around the country and you want to use that well known offshore collision risk a forklift?:confused:

We need episodes on:

  • How to repel borders
  • How to deal with limpet mines
  • How to defend against pirates, harbour masters and the NT using a 40' extruded aluminium mast, a Calor Gas bottle and a sack of potoatoes.
  • How to booby trap your boat if capture by pirates seems likely
  • How well the AWB withstands a direct hit from an Exocet or other ASM
  • How many times you can ignore the range boat and motor across Lulworth ranges before being hit
  • The effects of shouting "power gives way to sail" when on a CC with a VLCC
  • What really happens when you totally ignore those nice men in their RIB's and try and come alongside a visiting American Aircraft Carrier
  • etc.


You're just not trying are you? :D
 
tudorsailor said:
I was told that it is not ideal to keep a bung tied to every through hull. They are made of wood that will swell when immersed so it better to keep them dry until needed.

Some of my through-hulls are of a bigger diameter than the bungs one gets in a commercial packet. Fortunately a friendly forumnite turned me so extra large bungs for emergency use. Wonder why one cannot get big bungs commercially?

My concern is that the hole would be an odd shape and not easily bunged up.

I do have a wooded mallet for hammering a bung home, that lives with the bungs

TS
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:) A wooden mallet! Don't want to bruise the bungs then? Just hit the damn thing with something heavy even a claw hammer will do!
 
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