Centerboard Thru Hull

felizcortez · **Joined:** 25 Apr 2016 10:25 **Posts:** 185

We finished this repair today. We left the mast in the boat and did everything in place. I was able to use a 1/4 drive ratchet to loosen the hose clamps and cut the hose off with a utility knife. The old thru hull came out by hand when I loosened the nut. The old sealant had failed and was what was causing our leak We dropped the board and cut an access hole at the top of the trunk. To get access to the inside of the hole.

The stainless pipe had crevice corrosion where the old hose was sitting on it, so I used a die grinder and ground out the bad material (took off about an inch)
I decided I didn't like the hose on pipe threads of the old installation. We glassed in a 1 inch OD piece of G10 fiberglass tube and sleeved it with UHMW we had machined to fit. This was all epoxied in place after I pushed the hose up on the stainless pipe far enough to get access. All of this was done with the mast in place which makes for some tight access.

I glued the old piece back in with some thickened epoxy and then covered it with 2 layers of 1708 biaxial and 2 layers of 6 oz cloth plus peel ply.

We should be splashing very soon, but I think this is a definite upgrade to the previous installation.

Maineiac · **Posted:** 22 Feb 2021 20:00

Looks good!

jfalsone · **Joined:** 06 Aug 2020 09:02 **Posts:** 142

Slick repair. Did you file smooth the inside edge of your G10 pipe? I would be concerned with chafe on the line. I would also be concerned with the pipe cracking at the trunk if any loads were applied but I guess that could only happen if someone stepped on it or if the stainless pipe got compressed enough to transmit loads through the hose which seems unlikely.

felizcortez · **Joined:** 25 Apr 2016 10:25 **Posts:** 185

I scuffed up the inside of the pipe and epoxied in a sleeve of UHMW plastic that runs the entire length of the g10 tube. This should provide a very low friction surface for the line. It has a flange that exits the. Centerboard thru hull in the trunk so the line doesn't hit any sharp edges. I had the UHMW sleeve turned at a local machine shop from a 1 inch rod of UHMW. This was all sanded very smooth.

I think you would be hard pressed to crack the pipe. The walls are 1/8 inch thick and the length is only maybe 3 or 4 inches. This is held in by glass on both sides along with thickened epoxy. It was very rigid and the thru hull is in a place that is difficult to access, so unlikely to get hit.

Tartan37.com

Centerboard Thru Hull

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