Thru Hull Fitting Replacement and Upgrade on Our Boat

It's time tackle a job we've been putting off for a while, the thru hull fitting replacement and upgrade on our boat. We have a working slip at Queen City Yacht Club that is available for members that gives you a 300 degree work around the boat with total access to the waterline of the bow, port and starboard side of the boat. We are going to replace the plastic thru hulls with stainless steel since the ones on our boat are plastic and deteriorating. But first we have some homework to do. We made masks for the thru hulls so it doesn't leave a mess once we put the 4200 around it to seal it as well as protect the outer layer of the through hole from getting any caulk on it. So we cut out painters tape to fit each thru hull. We used Groco stainless steal thru hulls as well as the Groco tool that has graduating notches for all of the different size thru hulls. There are 25 of these bad boys! If you were going to purchase them at West Marine it would cost $1500 USD! We were able to go online and get them from Ultimatepassage.com and Iboats.com since neither of them had all of the different sizes that we needed, we were able to get them for about $550 USD! Prices are starting to get insane for all of the new inventory so if you can find new old stock that is where we were able to find these. Prices are getting kind of silly and I think we got lucky be fore the rush starts. My advice is if you have a project is to get it done now or at least order the parts now because the supply chain stinks.
Each piece had to be cut out and the hull had to be cleaned with RELEASE adhesive and sealant remover before installing the thru hull.
The first real curve ball is that the 5/8 flange is the same size as the 3/4 inch. The problem is that the plastic ones that came with the boat are smaller. The problem is that we have to drill them out but there is no way for a guide since the hole is already there so we have to make a guide. So we made a guide with some extra starboard that we had on board from a previous project. Then we can drill out the larger hole. Good thing we had some of this on board since there are 5 of these that we have to make.
Next we put some dielectric grease on the barbs of the thru hulls, since they were a little bit bigger and the other plastic ones didn't have, and the heat it up with a heat gun to make sure that is was a tight fit.
It was a full 12 hour day to get all 25 of them installed and it was worth it. Now its time to get the boat all cleaned up.
0:00 opening
1:41working slip
1:47 Groco thru hulls and tool
4:49 masking the thru hulls
7:25 removing old thru hulls
7:45 old plastic thru hull removed
8:27 thru hull installation tool
8:30 curve ball with solution
10:00 guide hole solution
10:15 Pro tip
10:56 attaching hose to thru hull
12:07 completed project
Boatlife Release BAT Supplies amzn.to/3dZVBdI
Groco thru hull installation tool ebay.us/obU6WC
Groco thru hulls ebay.us/OxWvVM
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[@AdventuresofHappyOurs]

25 thru hulls! Omg. Meridian had an ingenious idea to plumb all the drains to a 2” pvc pipe running the entire length of the bilge both port and starboard to a common collection/drain box under the swim platform. Pretty ingenious. It really quiets down the ac drains. I have about 4 thru hulls on the entire boat. Amazing you finished all that in one day! Great job!

[@ElliYacht1]

Meridian is the clear winner in that design category. I can safely say, I’ll never do that again ;-)

[@BoatingJourney]

Ditto!!!!

[@grantpeachey6908]

woow just woow TS YOU ARW RIGHT IN MY 70 YEARS HAVE NEVER SEEN THIS yes lets put another hole in the hawl, but not being bad Terence you are old school like me one hole is enough, but these are above the water line they are not sailors and never leaned over so we hope good job elli keep her straight and yes bound em all

[@terencesmith4137]

I've worked on a lot of boats, but never one that had 25 through hulls! Must admit it looks great! Good job!

[@ElliYacht1]

Thank you!! Ya they definitely went overboard. No pun intended.

[@matthewmelton2361]

You can also use dishwasher soap to lube up the hose barb

[@ElliYacht1]

Great tip. Thank you !

[@cgirl111]

Way late but if you have to enlarge an existing hole you can put both smaller and larger on the drill and the smaller acts as a guide for the larger.

[@michaelabrejera2255]

No pain...no gain! Great trouble shooting!

[@124612]

Great Job! Looks good.

[@Jack-yl7cc]

Next time you need to enlarge an existing hole, look into getting a step drill bit kit(aka unibit); that would have saved you a lot of time and hassle as they are self-centering. They are also great at making round holes thin and flexible materials (Sheetmetal, plastic etc.) because unlike normal twist drill bits, they have a straight flute. Downside of them is that you can't really make a hole deeper than one of the steps.

[@ElliYacht1]

What a great option! Thank you for sharing, that will definitely help in the future

[@steveprice4779]

Glad my boat came with all Stainless so I don't have to do that...nice job...

[@ElliYacht1]

What a blessing! Thank you

[@phillo1818]

Sweet looking super yacht-ish look. Smart move looking online and buying made in America/Canada anywhere but China if possible. For the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would use plastic where sunshine and the elements easily destroy such key items. With COVID boat to yacht sales have gone through the roof, marina prices (parts ..etc.) have skyrocketed, available births on every coast are very hard to find for the newbies and/or for anyone wanting to move to a new location. Never ever downsize the tool crib or galley toys, everything else is negotiable. If she says so....

[@ElliYacht1]

She says so 😉