Slotted hull strainer ?'s

[stugiv]

I have a '97 Coronet & I am wondering if anyone knows how the slotted hull strainers are installed? The raw water plumbing appears to be all Groco (sea strainer & seacock) so I'm guessing that the hull strainer might be Groco as well. I'm hoping a mounting ring was used so it can be more easily removed for cleaning. I'm having some flow problems that recently cropped up & I'm pretty sure that's the issue.

Has anyone tried this themselves? They look like the model below:



Thanks.

[Uhehner]

There is probably a mushroom thru-hull under that strainer and a sea cock on the mushroom threaded shaft inside the hull. Some times its a one piece thru-hull and strainer. Oysters and barnacles love to live in there. Its a tough job to clean them out when the boat is out of the water but I have done it. You must break the pieces small enough to fit through the slots. Long screwdrivers seemed to work best. If it was installed with 5200 it will be difficult to remove for cleaning. I have never tried an acid flush. Capt. George

[stugiv]

Thanks for the response. All the one piece models I've seen appear to be much smaller. Groco allows for the installation of a mounting ring so the ring gets attached to the hull & then the strainer gets attached to the ring. That's the only way I can see taking off the strainer. I was hoping somebody else had already tried it & might know if there's a mounting ring. There's such a buildup of bottom paint around the strainer on my boat its hard to tell.

The boat is still in the water & scraping the outside didn't help (unfortunately). I don't think I'll get a chance to do it more thoroughly until I pull it out for the winter sometime this month.

[sawdustdad]

You could try going in from above-remove the hose, open the seacock and using a long screwdriver, quickly ream the opening--all the crap will come flooding into the boat, so be prepared. Make sure your seacock operates easily before you remove the hose! I had to do this once on my genset when I couldn't haul, but that hose is much smaller. Watch out for pucker factor.

[roboh20]

Your second picture shows a mounting ring, does Groco make it? I remove, clean and reinstall the strainers every year. That mounting ring would make the process a lot easier.

[Chris Burkard]

Just as saw dusted suggested, it may have barnacles growing up inside the tube. As long as the sea-cock works, you are in no danger of sinking the vessel by removing the hose and opening the valve for cleaning.

Groco does manufacture articulated seawater intake grates so you simply pull a pin and drop the grate open for cleaning. We just installed a set on C-15 CATS. Not sure if they make them for smaller applications.

The mounting ring is also a great idea, not as simple as the articulated version, but better than permanently mounted.