Blake’s seacock removal

I'm going to fit a holding tank, and the general consensus seems to be that it's a very good idea to have a 2" through hull for gravity emptying.

On most yachts it's fairly simple to fit a larger through hull, but the Blake's on a Swan are all encapsulated.

Any hints and tips for the best way to go about it?

Are you left with a big sunken area on the inside of the hull to fill in before adding a backing plate?

Dear Sweyn,

if you install the new Blake as per original layout (which lasted until now) you do not need a backing plate.

On Classicswan "technical tips" > "technical papers" you have all and detailed instruction for correctly installing the new Blake, an instruction paper written by Laurent von Saenger in France (one of the leading expert on GRP/Carbon fibre) under the supervision of Lars Strom.

Fair winds!

matteo (47/069 Vanessa)

Thanks Matteo, that's a very helpful resource, but it still leaves me wondering how to remove the old smaller seacock that was previously there while leaving a suitably flat surface to work with.

i think by the time I've cut it out it will be a real mess, and probably need a G10 backing plate just to give a flat surface.

Dear Sweyn,

I think the only option is to carefully grinding the surface until you have the desired flat surface.

Could you please post some photos?

matteo (47/069 Vanessa)