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Well, I am getting ready to replace seacocks. I know everyone has an opinion on it. So, let me tell you what I plan on doing with the expectation I am going to hear either how stupid the idea is or how it worked on your boat(s). I am planning on replacing all thru-hulls and seacocks. The backingboards on each thru-hull are "spongy" and I want them replaced. Each one has a ball valve attached to them. The ball valve seacocks are so old I am literally scared to touch them for fear they may freeze in the wrong position. I know the seacock for my Cruisair allows waterflow regardless of how the handle is positioned.
What are your thoughts on switching all seacocks to the Marelaon flanged seacocks attached to the new thru-hulls and their backing-boards? They do not rot, do not need to be bonded, they should not crack, and I know of a few big sailboats that use them. Any reasons why I should not switch to the Marelon seacocks?
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Replacing the through-hulls and seacocks is a top priority once I get Windsong out of the water. I planned on going bronze, but am curious to hear opinions about Marelaon.
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Yea Erick, I have been surprised to hear many of the sailors around this marina have switched over to Marelon.
I installed a water hose attachment to my sea strainer for the Cruisairs on my last boat. One of the Cruisairs was always "misbehaving" and I had to run the other system from a water hose while repair the "ill tempered" machine. This addition also helped out tremendously one summertime evening when the water pump stopped working. It was great being able to temporarily run the air conditioning from a water hose that night, as well as being able to flush the system with high pressured fresh water on occasion. Well, I did not bond this addition, not thinking about all the waterflow and continuous discharge of electrons from the water pump affecting the bronze fittings and ball valve. About a year or so later, I heard the pump sucking air one evening. The air was coming from a corrosion/erosion that had occured at one of those water hose attachment fittings. Much to my dismay there was now a bunch of water being sucked into the bilge of the boat. That is when I started asking around about the Marelon products. To fix the immediate problem, I just replaced the fitting and then bonded the attachment for the water hose. But, I have been thinking about switching all the thru-hulls/seacocks to the Marelon material for some time now and have heard a lot of positives testimonies about it. I would like to find some negative testimonies before I commit.
Thank you for your post.
Lance
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I have heard good and bad about the marlon seacocks. They are a bit more fragil but more resistant to corrosion. The advice I get is to go with top quality bronze fittings. I think that the thirty year lifespan of the ones on valkyr prove that they have a good track record. here is a page I posted on the forum a while back.. I am going to copy it over to there also.
I have been giving the sea cocks a bit of thought and realized that I don't really know that much about them. So a bit of research was in order.
I found a lot of really good information on the web.
http://www.boatus.com/boattech.....sey/07.htm
http://www.diybob.com/diySeacock.htm
http://sailmagazine.com/blogs/.....tallation/
http://www.geocities.com/early.....Maint.html
http://www.cncphotoalbum.com/d.....acocks.htm
anatomy of quality seacocks.
The pictured sea cocks are Groco sea cocks which are considered top end and very pricey, as always you get what you pay for.
I have a created a static page under the info index with the above information on it. If anyone knows what kind of sea cocks and what size were standard from the factory it would be interesting to put up here. So any thing anyone has to contribute about their experiences with their boats and what kind of sea cocks they have and the locations of them would be valuable. Once we get some data here on the forum from people I will consoidate it on the Sea Cocks page.
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