Last Saturday, Debbie and I finished up our long list of chores around the house and snuck up to Tahoe to go for a relaxing sail. While she got out the cockpit cushions and prettied up the topsides, I went below to add water to the Perkins and to open the engine cooling inlet. Snap! The handle sheared off in my hand. It was one of those “Whoa! Can I hit rewind?” moments, as I realized the ramifications: I’d have to haul out the boat ($250), replace the seacock ($45), hope that the existing thru-hull was still viable, and drop the boat back in (would they charge me another $250?), plus $85/hr. for the guy helping with the repairs.

Disappointed, we packed up our gear and rowed the dinghy back to shore. The 40-mile drive  home was a quiet one, to say the least. In the back of my mind, I was thinking about the sailboat trailer welding modifications that I needed to make, and had been saving my pennies for this summer.

The next day, Labor Day, the family came over for BBQ ribs, and we talked about what had happened and what to do. Brother-in-law Tracy (the engineer) wondered aloud whether we could just put a wine cork in the inlet from beneath the boat, swap out the old seacock with a new one, and call it good. I floated this idea by the guys on Yahoo!’s Catalina 270 forum, with pretty much universal condemnation. What if the thru-hull exploded? What if the cork popped out?

Debbie called a guy named Brian at Obexer’s Marina and he suggested a “short haul” where we’d just lift the boat out of the water so the hull was clear, make the seacock swap, and call it good. That is, unless the thru-hull exploded (although I’m not sure why it would), at which point, we’ve have to totally pull the boat out, put it on boat stands, remove the old thru-hull, let the hull dry, re-install the thru-hull, etc. My anxiety level has been rising as I see dollar signs and a limited window of fair winds and smooth sailing for the remainder of the 2013 season.   —DB