T&T: Seacock plugs

[Rich Gano]

There is certainly nothing inherently wrong with the idea of attaching
appropriately-sized wooden plugs to seacocks/through-hulls for use in
emergencies, but is there some experience you have had or weakness in the
boat that causes you to be concerned enough that you want to attach damage
control plugs to the through-hulls?

Another question - what determines the plug size?  Do you want to be
prepared for the hose to fail or for complete failure of the though-hull
itself with a potentially bigger hole?  The later seems more likely and is
corrected by closing the seacock.

I once had the idea to tie plugs to seacocks, but eventually opted for a
damage control bag of tricks which includes a selection of plugs.  As you
noted about the dryness of your bilge, keeping the plugs dry is a good idea
so they'll swell into place and hold, but will the plugs be dry if attached
to broken and/or leaking through-hulls?

Although I once had a through-hull get broken off during a storm by a poorly
secured water maker in a yacht I was delivering up the California coast, I
have confidence such a thing would not happen in my own vessel.  In the case
at hand, I used a rag and screwdriver to plug the hole for another 400 miles
and several days.  What would have been a far better thing to have had in
that vessel than a plug attached to the through-hull was a bilge alarm to
let me know of the problem before the level got so high I had to swim around
in several feet of bilge water looking for the problem.  I have an effective
alarm in my boat.

I had a through-hull begin leaking in my boat earlier this year as a result
of some deterioration of the hull planking combined with my forcing the
valve.  The leak was oozing (not an imminent danger of sinking here) around
the base of the valve where it contacts the hull, meaning there was no way
to put a plug in there.  I ended up stopping it with Splash Zone Epoxy until
I could get the boat hauled a month later.

A California marina neighbor one day broke off a through-hull with his foot
while messing about in his bilge.  He plugged it with something and left for
the boatyard where he ended up replacing every through-hull in his boat
after they all failed a hammer-test.  I have an Electro-Guard system to
protect the through-hulls (all bronze), and I check their integrity
regularly with my hammer too.

So, all things considered, I came down on the side of NOT bothering to
attach plugs to the through-hulls.

Rich Gano
CALYPSO (GB-42 #295)
Southport, FL