Cockpit Drain

[kydocfrog]

I am now on my third version of a boat cover for Charlie Girl on the trailer. Two versions from heavy polytarp and now a commercial boat cover that, while a bit ugly where it has to be bunched up and tied off around the bow, still covers her completely. Stretched down around hull all the way around, bungee cords, etc. Toward the stern and cockpit, the cover goes all the way down to the chines and ties off.

And so it rained today and, once again, I had two inches of water in the cockpit. It does not seem coming in around the bow and running back to the cockpit -- the foredeck is dry, dusty, and has no water marks. I give up. I'm going to have to install a drain. A transom drain won't work. Does anyone have any advice on a floor drain in the cockpit? What type of hardware, plug, etc.?

DocA

[Frank Hagan]

I lost all my pictures in the computer crash I suffered (the hard drive is in the freezer in preparation for my last ditch effort.) So I don't have any pictures of my installation, but this might help ....

You can usually find "dinghy drains" with screw in plugs, such as this one from http://www.apsltd.com/Tree/d6000/e5610.asp :

I used a white one similar to this from West Marine, and it was under $4. Rather than try to drill through the center of the keel, I offset the drain plug toward starboard. It worked well, although you do have to watch leaves and other debris, as they can clog the 1/2" hole pretty quickly.

[Bud_Wilson]

DocA I also ofset my drain plug. I drilled my hole 1/2" larger than the outside dem. of the plug, pouted the hole full of appx. then drilled the hole the size of the drain. this way you have no raw wood exposed to water. applied some 5200 to the plug slid it in the hole works great. Y'all Come Cap'N Bud.

[Andrew_Butchart]

For my yet to be assembled Weekender I have drilled a hole in the keel as the Stevenson Projects site suggest. For the drain itself, I pieced together some 1/4" galvanized pipe along with a expander nipple. For a plug I picked up some plastic plugs although I've found that the cork from a bottle of Scotch also fits (empty bottle first :-D )

I'm using galvanized since the boat will sit on a trailer most of the time, never see salt water, and the keel strip is also steel. I'm using a plastic plug so that it can't possibly rust in place - I have spares so if necessary I can just twist the thing out.

Keep in mind that I haven't even assembled this unit and was able to drill my holes easily with the keel off the boat.

[Bob Taylor]

I used the exact fitting that Frank shows above. I placed it in the forward port corner of the cockpit floor. Still get water in Sultana even though she stays well covered. The seats accumulate nightly condensation and it pools in the corners. No biggie, just part of owning a boat.