So, one fine afternoon I decided to remove the head discharge seacock--the only one remaining on the Daysailor, Triton hull #100. Fine and dandy. An earlier investigation into its installation showed that it was rather unusual: no bronze (or other) through hull fitting was actually installed, despite the fact that a full and proper seacock was installed on the inside. Instead, there was one of the ubiquitous fiberglass tubes visible from the outside.
(Aside: interestingly enough, I received an email a few months back from a fellow with a C&C who had an installation similar to this. This is something new for me--I've never seen a seacock installed over a fiberglass tube. But anyway...)
Inside the boat, bolt heads were visible on the seacock flange. No corresponding sign indicating that these were throughbolts was observed on the outside, so I figured that the seacock must be lagged into the built-up fiberglass--and presumably wood--backer inside the boat.
After a couple attempts to remove these bolts/lags from inside with the lame tools I had on board (demolition quality only), I finally jumped on board with a selection of wrenches in hand to get those lags out and remove the seacock, which was becoming increasingly in the way. With a modicum of chipping of accumulated paint and, as it turned out, fiberglass, the silly square-head (thank God people got away from these annoying things) bronze lags came right out with no particular problem. Cooooooool.
But, alas. The seacock would not budge. It turns out that the brilliant folks at Pearson decided that it would be a good idea to set the seacock in a bed of wet fiberglass. Because, naturally, it would never need replacing right? After all, the Triton was a throwaway boat, never intended for such longevity. (Hint to wannabe throwaway boat builders: don't build your hulls 1" thick and strong enough to take anything.)
The long and the short of it is (well, there's never really a short with me, as you faithful followers surely know (and love?) by now) that this seacock is firmly entrenched in the bed of fiberglass, and, as of this writing, attempts to free it, or to even see a glimmer of hope, are a dismal failure.
So: Triton #100 has a bronze head discharge seacock, bedded in wet fiberglass and screwed to a fiberglass-encapsulated wooden backer block inside the hull, installed over a fiberglass tube with no external through hull fitting. My main point here is that this is substantially different from other Tritons I have experience with.
For the record, #381 Glissando had a bronze mushroom through hull on both the head intake and discharge, each equipped with bronze seacocks that, unfortunately, could not be saved. These seacocks were throughbolted to the hull, and this was most definitely the original configuration Pearson was using at that time.