Seacocks

[kynaston]

I am new to this board so thanks in advance for your responses. We have recently bought ourselves a Hurley 22 which needs a little work - not too much. One of the more important tasks is to replace one of the sea cocks.

The existing ones are gate valves which I am not too enamoured of so I have bought a new Blakes seacock. The question is, how difficult is this to do for an amateur? The drawings on the Blakes web site do not look too difficult but as it is a hole in the boat I am obviously keen that the job should be done properly.

Thanks in advance

for pictures of the Hurley and my Drascombe Lugger go to
http://www.rkynaston.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/

 

[Mirelle]

Not difficult. Your nervousness is understandable, but it is indeed an easy job for an amateur. It does take a little time, which is a good reason for doing it yourself.

For this reason, it is best to do it with the boat ashore, rather than between tides. The Blakes instructions are easy to follow.

Do a dry run first (without the sealant). This gives a chance to check the thickness of the backing pad, so that the through hull part of the seacock projects just the right amount. You can saw the excess off with a hacksaw, but it's a lot of work and why not use a thicker. stronger, backing pad?

The only real "tip" I can offer is that if by any chance the hole diameter of the fitting you are replacing differs from that of the Blakes seacock, it is a good plan to bolt the backing pad temporarily in place, drill (with a hole cutter) through pad and hull, then dissassemble and put it together finally.

When you do this, beware of excess sealant blocking the holes in the strainer, if it is an inlet seacock that you are fitting.

 

[ccscott49]

Why bother with blakes, You could just replace the gate valves with bronze ball valves, much cheaper and no need to disturb the through hull fitting, unless you want to rebed them. They are a very good valve aswell.

 

[dickh]

Agree with ccscott - I have BRONZE ball valves fitted - make sure you get Bronze - there are a lot of Brass ones around. The only possible problem with ball valves is that they stick up a lot more than Blakes and you may not have enough room by the time a hose is fitted.
But, as you have the Blakes - go ahead and fit it.

dickh
I'd rather be sailing... /forums/images/icons/smile.gif

 

[Mirelle]

I beg, respectfully, to differ - I took out a pair of bronze ball valves and fitted Blakes, after a fair trial (10 years) of the ball valves. They started to seize up and became incredibly hard to operate. I suspect that this was due to the nylon valve seats swelling in seawater. There is no means of lubricating them or refitting them - you can always lubricate a Blakes seacock and case need you can lap it in with valve grinding paste .

 

[ccscott49]

I think they might have improved in the ten years you trialed yours, they should have teflon seats, which are impervious to salt water. We use them extensively offshore, for all kinds of fluids and gas, some now even have stainless handles. I have blakes for all my underwater seacocks and wouldn't change them, but if I was building new, I think I would give serious consideration to bronze through hulls and bronze ball valves. Incidently all my above waterline outlets, have gate valves, which I am replacing as ness with bronze ball valves. My main engine seacocks are gate valves, but they are gigantic things and blakes just wouldn't work in my instalation, if I could get ball valves big enough they'd get replaced right now. All of the above is of course IMHO. I forgot to add, did you ever service your ball valves, with new seats or anything?

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by ccscott49 on 31/01/2003 16:10 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[tillergirl]

Okay - where do you get 'Bronze' ball valves? I have to replace my cockpit drain seacocks this year (I'm ashamed to admit they are gate valves). The best I@ve seen so far have yellow metal carcase but the ball is definitely white metal (so I didn't ask what the yellow metal porported to be. My engine seacock is a wonderful old bronze thing made by the 'Southend Engineering Company'. I won't say it never siezes in case I'm chancing fate but it's a pity the company didn't last as long as their products.

 

[Mirelle]

The answer is no, I did not service them - they were the cockpit drain seacocks and hard to get at to dismantle, so I put off doing anything until I could afford to replace them. Replacement was a swine of a job because the diameter of the through hulls was more than that of the Blake's seacocks, so it was a case of first close your hole, then make a new one.

 

[ccscott49]

You could try ASAP supplies. Most of the ones I see around have plated bodies and plated balls. The ones I saw in spain, even had stainless handles and were all plated bronze, with teflon seats. not expensive either. I'm not sure where else to try in UK, as I don't live there, but try some of the better chandlers.

 

[dickhicks]

Mirelle, yes I agree they might not last as long as Blakes, but you could buy several for the price of a Blakes. I had my loo outlet one replaced two years ago by the boatyard, it had got stiff and then the (steel) handle broke, and as I was going cruising the following fortnight, and no time for DIY, the yard replaced it. This of course entailed lifting out, and 90% of the cost was this. I suspect the ball valve was about 10 years old. If I remember the ball valve(bronze) was only £12. Normally I would have done this myself on the scrubbing posts.
I think it also depends on the construction, some have nylon seats, some have Teflon etc usually with stainless balls. The only poor point is the steel handles, my loo inlet one had been replaced by the previous owner with a stainless handle and I will probably do the same to the outlet.

 

[wpsalm]

don,t know bronze from brass and should they be or not be bonded ....in the end decided on Marlon ball valves glass fiber in nylon made in NZ company called forspar claims tested 10,000 cycles and still able to hold 100lbs air preasure, I installed one in the wrong place and ended up testing it to distruction with 5lb hammer very impressed.....

 

[ccscott49]

Yes, I've heard these new Maralon valves are the bees knees. I have blakes now, but if anything happened to them, I would consider those.

 

[Aeolus_IV]

Sorry to bring this thread back. I've read with interest pros/cons on ball valves - not really relevant for us, had all seacock replaced when we bought the boat (with ball valves at the recommendation of the yard). It sounds like ball valves are not serviced, is this so? If not how do you services them? Aelous now on the hard, so now is the time to sort this out.

Thanks, Jeff.

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