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Thru the hull plastic fittings


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Cs20mk3 hull# 24

I have chosen to fill and empty my ballast tank with electric bilge pumps in looking at the information on plastic fittings and they don’t recommend them for below water line. I see no reason not to use them since our boats don’t spend extensive time in the water. If anyone has a spin on this make a post, also I have been building the collars for the masts having only 8” between them that’s not much bearing surface how do you make sure that they are straight,I used a 6’ level to make them level and a string line on the adjacent side to see that they were inline,I will not epoxy them till later on.i don’t need 21’ masts just laying around.

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Mark, I have a ski boat ballast pump in the port lazarette  my CS20.3 with a 3/4 inch bronze thru hull the aft port side of the centerboard case.  I also have a 3 way diverter valve in the locker with a small hose to rinse the cockpit and clean the occasional fish. 4 years later still working fine.   I plumbed it with pvc pipe but if I did it over I would consider pex, to eliminate some fittings.  The gentle bends of the pex probably flow better too.  I didn’t use a thru hull shut off valve, seemed to be overkill. Where my intake port is there is so little hydrostatic pressure, and if it totally failed the locker might get 4 inches of water in it, didn’t seem necessary.  

I do have to watch using the centerboard as a depth sounder, it gets muddy then the ballast tank gets muddy and it is I PIA to clean out.  

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There are a few down sides to plastic fittings.

1. strength, easier to break apart where hose attaches ( doesn't apply if nylon)

2. bonding, some goops don't work with plastic at all and others don't work as well

3. they get even weaker when a shut off is attached (well, more susceptible to breaking as lever arm gets longer)

 

If I anchored my boat for an over night I would want all through hulls to have shut offs.  Redundancy equals safety.

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