Marelon thru-hull lubrication

[tonywright]

I am missing the two page manual that is supposed to be part of the documentation with the boat, and want to lube the Marelon thru hulls before launch. Several are inaccesible from below the boat due to position of a pad on the cradle. Has anyone disassembled/reassembled the thru hull from inside in order to lube it? Any hints and tips for a novice at this? Is there a shortcut, ie what is the little white key for? (MK II 2003)

Thanks

Tony

[Joe Kern]

Take a look at this one.  Don't take out the white key if the boat is in the water.

http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?topic=2729.msg14266#msg14266

[Phil Spicer]

 Tony, I do don't know just how the new valves are set up to get to the ball . I have the old straight models. Think about this. Shut the valve off & lube from inside. This should get 1/2 of the ball. Don't know if you will need to remove the hose to do this. With the valve still shut off, lube the other 1/2 of the ball from the outside while the boat is in the sling. I always have plenty of time to paint the pad areas when the boat is lifted. Have some lube ready to go & do the valves at the same time. Hope your marina is as nice as mine.

[Larry Robertie]

Tony,

Try this link: http://www.forespar.com/resources2/techTips/marelonLube.shtml

Basically, pull the hose and lube it through that.  I'd not heard of the Forespar product LanoCote, but found it at Defender, with a good description.  http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1%7C10918%7C309314%7C311453&id=81076  Looks like a product I'll try.

[tonywright]

Thanks for the info guys.  I also picked up the phone and spoke to Forespar. Here is what they said: You need to grease twice a year, without attempting to disassemble the thu-hull. They did agree that this is tricky with the right angled hose barbs that most of the fittings have. I plan to use a pipe brush which has a cloth end to push some Lanacote down the barb end.

I was strongly discouraged from any attempt to disassemble the fitting by undoing the four screws. These are precision-torqued in the factory.

As mentioned in the thread above, the white ring piece is intended as a bung to be applied from under the boat when it is in the water.

Our "marina" is actually a sailing club. Boats over 5 tons are launched on "launch day" (May 5 this year!) with the help of two commercial mobile cranes rented at great expense for the few hours that it takes to launch 100 plus boats. No time to play with Marelon fittings while the boat is in the slings. No-one is allowed under the boat while it is in the slings anyway! As we all know, a C34 weighs a bit more...

Maybe I will have to learn to hold my breath longer while snorkeling. I will wait until the water is above 40 degrees though.

Might be a poll question of the month: how often do you grease your thru-hulls?

[DougP]

Your club launches 100+ boat in one day? First splash after a Winter on the hard?

I don't know if I should scream in horror or fly up to watch the show

[tonywright]

Come on up, there is a great view from the balcony of the club. Serving hot coffee in the morning, followed by great Canadian beer in the afternoon, as we all fold our cradles ready for storage.

Tony