Replaing seacocks

MontyMariner

MontyMariner

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Somerset / Dorset border
montymariner.co.uk
I have a pair on the forward heads that need replacing. After 35 years, they have earned their keep! 🤣😭
Sadly, I've decided that I'm too old and decrepit to crawl about on the floor and DIY so asked the yard to do it using Trudesign.
Cost will be £460.00 + VAT. I'm out of touch with costs, but that doesn't seem too excessive to me.
What do you think?
 
Doesn't seem too excessive if that includes the parts. Seacocks are never straightforward, I'd consider it a miracle if you don't have to cut the pipe work off before you start and that's before you think about trying to unscrew anything.

I'd bet the parts are £150, and the labour = a full day of swearing and bruised knuckles.

Komp Krew's suggestion of including parts and the lifting fees made me chuckle!
 
Trudesign are good, EXCEPT that they are so much bigger than the metal ones they are replacing. 10/12 years ago I replaced all 6 original (from new boat) plated brass seacocks and their skin fittings with bronze versions along with all piping that attached to them: half a day's work with someone to assist. Last year the biggest bronze one (heads outlet) had got so stiff to operate that I bought a Trudesign including new plastic skin fitting, collar and new 38mm sanitary pipe. On coming to fit it the fact that the Trudesign was so much larger than the old one meant revised pipe run just would not work. Needed to firstly change newly bought 2 metres of pipe to a more flexible version and even after that attach a 90 degree bend to the seacock. Took in the end all day to get that single one fitted by the time 2 trips back to the chandlers was added in. Location inside small hatch under sink in heads, awkward work.
 
Just had two replaced as an emergency…the thru hull sprung a leak. The the position was too awkward for me to reach…and the boat yard needed us back in the water as soon as possible…I bought the fittings (bronze) from the local chandelier for nearly €300 and the mechanic charged nearly €600
Plus of course the lifting fee of nearly €300
Expensive….but…it was urgent…the boat could have sank. The mechanic is very well known locally and he came out straight away…the job was very awkward (will boat designers please please put seacocks where they can be exchanged without the use of a flexible child)
I estimate that including travel (it was multiple trips including the launch to check it wasn’t leaking) it came to €50 per hour…I was paying £50 per hour for my BMW mechanic in the 90’s
It was on my schedule of work for the next haul out (before it became an emergency) and I had planned on getting TruDesign and spending a leisurely two weeks doing it myself…working enough each day before my body seized up
 
sigma38dave said:
Seacocks are never straightforward, I'd consider it a miracle if you don't have to cut the pipe work off before you start and that's before you think about trying to unscrew anything.
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Very true. I do take my big spanner with me, but only to do up the new ones. Getting the old through-hulls off invariably requires the delicate touch of my angle grinder.

As for the costs, if parts and a lift are included, I doubt very much I'd find better anywhere in the Solent.
 
Stemar said:
Very true. I do take my big spanner with me, but only to do up the new ones. Getting the old through-hulls off invariably requires the delicate touch of my angle grinder.

As for the costs, if parts and a lift are included, I doubt very much I'd find better anywhere in the Solent.
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One of my friends drills them out from outside with either a step drill bit or pair of hole saws mounted in an 'Oops Arbour', the arbour designed for enlarging holes. The smaller hole saw centres the larger one perfectly.
 
You can watch YouTube vids of people replacing thru hulls and seacocks in minutes....in real life, if you have two to do....one will come out easily and the other will cause your hair to turn grey
 
Marelon one just went on my boat in France (I installed it 10 years ago but no idea why it failed). That was around cost of replacement including parts, perhaps just a bit less. I had made an epoxy base so that might have made straight replacement easier.
 
jwilson said:
Trudesign are good, EXCEPT that they are so much bigger than the metal ones they are replacing. 10/12 years ago I replaced all 6 original (from new boat) plated brass seacocks and their skin fittings with bronze versions along with all piping that attached to them: half a day's work with someone to assist. Last year the biggest bronze one (heads outlet) had got so stiff to operate that I bought a Trudesign including new plastic skin fitting, collar and new 38mm sanitary pipe. On coming to fit it the fact that the Trudesign was so much larger than the old one meant revised pipe run just would not work. Needed to firstly change newly bought 2 metres of pipe to a more flexible version and even after that attach a 90 degree bend to the seacock. Took in the end all day to get that single one fitted by the time 2 trips back to the chandlers was added in. Location inside small hatch under sink in heads, awkward work.
Click to expand...

TruDesign are now producing more compact versions of their 12mm & 19mm diameter seacocks. Hopefully they will downsize the rest of the range.
 
The yard we used to replace our 14 seacocks with Trudesigns estimated at a standard £180 labour (including vat) per fitting in 2022. In the event, around half required additional work to accommodate the load bearing collars which we had fitted to all, including enlarging the three holes in the forward heads waterproof shell and a couple of grp pads in the engine compartment. Fortunately, and very pleasantly surprisingly, unasked, they charged me labour at the price it would have been had they simply replaced like for like - said they had written the extra off as a learning experience for the shipwrights!
 
I’ve done three myself…(including one TrueDesign) all in relatively get to positions. The three remaining thru hulls are almost impossible to access and require professionals
 
Top tip: good way to get old seacocks out is to use a Bosch long metal blade in a reciprocating saw. The blades are nice and flexible so you can hold saw at a slight angle against hull outer and get a nice flush to hull cut thru body of seacock. Then just tap them out.
 
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