Pam, Mark does make a good point about deciding what is urgent and what is nice to do, and the amount of time it will take to do it. I have a 1973 vintage C-27 and replaced the volcano pipes with proper sea cocks. Its really not hard <about 1/2 a day> for all three that are midships, I don't know what the position/access is like if you have an A-4 or Diesel, but it probably isn't good.
First stop is Judy B's web site, lots of good pictures. http://blumhorst.com/catalina27/albums/1st-haul-out/1st-haulout-day3.htm Judy used Phenolic for her wooden donuts, others used teak, I used redwood from the hardware store and after two years it looks fine. Judy B talks about the size of the new thru hull. The water inlet pipe for the thru hulls on my boat were 1/2" to the head and 1/2" out from the sink/icebox, and the head outlet was 3/4". I took the head out of my boat and substituted a porta potty, so I replaced the 1/2" pipes with 3/4" thru hulls, and glassed over the head outlet. Second stop... http://archives.sailboatowners.com/index.htm?fno=20 This is the CatalinaOwners.Com site, and has been quite active with Catalina 27 tips. Search under the model number 27, and use the words Thru Hulls. [EMAIL PROTECTED]/V Tashtego wrote a pretty good description of his process. You can also search on the words gate valve and thru hull or thru hulls as well as the word Tashtego. Third stop is http://www.boatus.com/howto/howto_lib.htm Don Casey has a little write-up on replacing thru hulls. Its good info but keep in mind you can do things a little different than what he says, and still do a good job. In taking out the volcano, remember that the fiberglass is nasty. Use goggles< not just safety glasses>, a painters paper or tyvek coverall, plastic gloves, and a respirator. You should also use light plastic drop cloth sealed with tape all around your work area, otherwise you will be cleaning fiberglass out of every crack and corner of your boat. Cutting out the volcano start with a sawz-all, and cut as close to the hull as you can. Once you cut the volcano off, you have two choices, use a hole saw to drill from inside or use a hole saw to drill from outside. There is nothing to stabilize the center bit of the hole saw so it will tend to "walk" a little as you get it started, which is why I chose the inside method. Cut over the outside of the remaining pipe through the hull. If you are replacing the 3/4" with another 3/4 inch, then just use your sawz-all to cut a groove down the inside of the pipe its whole length. This lets the pipe flex and you can use a drift or a socket of the same size to knock the pipe out. You now have a lump of fiberglass on the inside of the hull which makes attaching things pretty difficult. Use a angle grinder with a 36 grit paper to sand this down to a pretty flat surface. Your wooden base for the seacock will be about 4-4 1/2 inches so sand a flat 5 inches in diameter. Now get your shop vac or dirt devil and clean up all the fiberglass you can, then use tack rags to clean up more of it. If you didn't put up the plastic sanding booth, you will be kicking yourself about now. The rest of the instructions are on the links I gave you up above. One thing to note. The threads on the pipe volcanos are just like plumbing threads, they are tapered (NPT = National Pipe Taper). So if you follow Marc's advice and just change out the gate valves this year<they have handles like your garden faucet and turn in full circles>, get your ball valves from a plumbing store. The regular marine thru hulls have straight threads (NPS=National Pipe Straight) which fits into one side of a sea cock. The other side of the seacock <outlet> is usually NPT, so you have to buy NPT hose bibs to hook up your water line. If you try to match NPT and NPS together, it will usually leak because there is only about 3/4 of one thread fully engaged. I like an anaerobic sealant, like PST or Swak instead of teflon tape. It seems to work a lot better on NPS pipe. Jim on "Tequila Chica" (name change there) Dana Point, CA "Pamela Derby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent by: [email protected] 04/06/2007 02:08 PM Please respond to [email protected] To [email protected] cc Subject catalina27-talk: old boat/new owner questions Happy Easter weekend everyone I am busily doing new owner of an old (1974) boat stuff, sanding bottoms, varnishing, removing rotten bulkheads, etc. Couple of questions... No vented loop for the head???? I have nipples not seacocks. Problem? This is my first rodeo, but in looking at the books, something isn't right. There is also a thingy ma jig in the V under the v-berth. I want to say it was for a depth sounder, but I find nothing else to go with that thought. the gel coat on the bottom after sanding has tiny hairline cracks. I am thinking of west system for the entire bottom. Would you experts suggest the 2001 E over the top of that also? I have 4 more weeks to get her ready to sail down from Middle River, MD to Norfolk. So time is of the essence for now. And of course it is going to snow tonight... Lovely (sarcasticly typed) Thanks in advance, Pam _________________________________________________________________ Get a FREE Web site, company branded e-mail and more from Microsoft Office Live! http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/mcrssaub0050001411mrt/direct/01/
