Removing hoses has always been a pain. Here is a suggestion from Kevin aboard Kairos:
After struggling with hoses I bought a hose removal tool from Amazon, OTC 4521 $9, you could probably bend a thick awl or pick, but this does work great.
Others have suggested using a heat gun to soften the hose prior to removal.
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The original question was how to service and lube a thru-hull with the boat in the water. What would happen if you took out the four screws on the inside part of the thru-hull? Warren’s response was something I’d never heard before. The thru-hull comes with a plug that can be used to plug up the thru-hull from the outside.
From post by Warren Elliott:
For disassembly while afloat (those 4 screws), there is a small “plug” extending out from the center of the handle. Pull this out (which reveals the handle’s securing screw)…..it is made to fit snugly in the fitting from the outside of the boat, thus avoiding a gusher. (This does require a slight bit of swimming!).
An additional feature of that plug is its closed circle handle; tie a several foot long string to that handle, securing the other end to a lifeline. Then, when the
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First, I strongly encourage you to keep VC-17 or SR-21 on the boat. In my experience, it is the only type of paint that works well on Lake Michigan slime. And if you cover over it with something else, you will need to take that new paint off if you or the next owner ever wants to go back.
If you are looking to save a few dollars, West Marine private-labels SR-21 as WR-21 and you can usually find it on sale in the spring for under $50. You can apply SR/WR-21 on top of VC-17. Both West and Pettit representatives have told me that the only difference between the Pettit and West versions is the label on the can (and the price).
Either VC-17 or SR-21 are very thin paints so a little goes a long way. We are able to get a coat on with three quarts, including
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There have been many discussions of blisters and barrier coats. Along with this are comments on soda blasting versus sand blasting. Some say that vinylester gelcoat doesn’t blister. Then again, something that looks like a blister can occur.
When dealing with barrier coats, some say that none is needed if you have a boat with vinylester gelcoat. Others say you still need a barrier coat to make the paint adhere to the gelcoat. Others say that a single coat of barrier coat is the way to go to act as a “tie coat” where the epoxy adheres to the gelcoat and the bottom coat adheres chemically to a still tacky barrier coat.
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Our prior boat was a 1989 C34. We soda blasted to get the old hard bottom paint off because I wanted to switch to VC-17. We were surprised to find hundreds of very small blisters (approximately the
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