Icebox Drain

[John Johnson]

Is there a good way to install a drain in the icebox. I am hesitant to drill through the bottom afriad of what is beneath.

Thanks,

John

[Roger]

I am including a pic that shows the underside of the icebox. The picture was taken through the inspection port. There is room to drain into the inner hull/bilge area. The clearance to the bottom of the hull is about 1.5 inches below the fg foam insulation under the ice box. Be real careful if you use a power drill. Try to use a collar stop if you must, but better yet use a hand operated gear drill. (I have thought of this myself) It may be wiser to drill the hole sideways into the cockpit area, so that it drains into the sole gutter then to the footwell at the back. I have also thought of installing a guzzler hand pump against the inside of the transom, since the self draining plug is often not working as it was designed at the back of the hull. (but that's a different project)

The tubing that you see in the picture allows water to move from one side of the stringer to the other. It has nothing to do with the ice chest.

If water drained into the bilge area from the cooler, there is also the chance that cooler contents, coke, beer, banana mush, sandwich parts, etc would drain into the bilge where they may smell, grow, and otherwise be difficult to clean. Certainly there is a risk that they could plug up the drainage. Then on the other hand I sometimes think the original design with no drains, is pretty good, because other than sponging it out occasionally, it is pretty maintenance free.

http://groups.msn.com/RogerConrad/shoeb ... hotoID=105

[John Johnson]

I had not thought of draining into cockpit. That may be the way to go as as you point out getting "messy bits" into the bilge could be a problem.

I may find some sort of plug so that it only drains when I choose; probably at the end of the day.

Thanks,

John

[Peter McMinn]

Wasn't at first clear what you meant by "icebox" but now I understand its what others call the "beer holder" on the aft deck of some older DS1s. I looked at one on our club lot and saw a drain hole through the transom. Some sort of tubing was used to seal the space between the inner wall of the container and the outer surface of the transom. You might look into installing a standard through-hull fitting used on bigger boats.

[Roger]

Peter may be right about a motor well in the older ds 1. I seem to remember seeing an open box back ther, but the 'beer holder' on the ds 2 is near the front on the port seat, with a lid, level with the top of the seat.

John, if you do go from the back corner of the ice box, (in my opinion the lowest corner when sailing), your best bet may be to use a pvc plumbing fitting about a 1/2" in diameter. That's a nice standard size hole and depending on what you use to drill the hole may be able to drill from the cockpit side into the ice box. I'm not sure if you can fit a power drill in the icebox from side to side. With a straight pipe like this draining into the cockpit gutter, you could either epoxy it in or use a threaded nipple and put furrel (sp) nuts on either end. You might even be able to find a drain cock, with a thumb knob at the plumbing supply store that does double duty as drain, and stopcock.

Either way, you want to get it as close to the bottom of the icebox as possible so that you don't have to swab much at the end of the day. You are right about some kind of cork or plug though. Cold air drops and will 'drain' out of your box unless you have some kind of simple plug, likely on the inside. Something as simple as a plumbing end cap may work if the pipe protrudes out on the inside a 1/2" or so. Otherwise a rubber cork from a science supply store or wine supply store may do the trick.

I find that the biggest problem with the ice box is that it collects water inbetween sails, so that I have to empty and clean it BEFORE I put anything in it. A self drainer kept open when not sailing would definately be an asset. Let us know how it works.

[Peter McMinn]

Wow, later DaySailers have a built-in icebox? Cool!
The (almost) half century of this boat's evolution is ever impressive to this retrophile.

Good luck, John!

[Roger]

Mine is a 1974 model. (Actually, I thought all of the DS II's had the inseat icebox) The DS II's according to my information were manufactured for 15 years between 1971 and 1986.

On the downside however, it does not have the shelf cubby inside the cuddy that the DS I's had. Wish I could get my hands on some of those.