DaySailer.org Forum

Had a wonderful weekend of sailing, but also caught a case of the drain-plug blues. My early DS1 has the simplest of drainplugs - a nylon mounting and threaded plug right at the bottom of the hull, right behind the centerboard. So, Saturday I did everybody's favorite trick - forgot to screw the drainplug in, mad scramble back to the boatramp. Sunday was even better... I managed to bang the hull onto my trailer's bow roller just the wrong way and the ENTIRE plug assembly popped out! Damn thing was only held on with a gasket and some ancient goop, I naively thought it was screwed thru the hull. It DOES have two screwholes, but what I thought were screws were just the gasket pushed up into the holes.

So now what? Get some 3M 5200 (or 4200) and just glue it back in? Can I/ should I screw the plug mounting to the hull? It's about 1/4 inch thick, so that's a mighty shallow screw... or do I screw it THRU the hull and then what?

Also, if I want to replace the whole thing, does anyone have suggestions? I'm thinking of glassing in the hole (glass mat, thickened polyester resin on both sides) and then putting in transom plugs. But does that really buy me anything? Would still be below the waterline, and not as easy to see. Hmm. Likewise, the only reason to replace the original mount/plug assembly is that the one I have is from the 50's, gawd only knows where I can get a replacement plug if I ever need one. Unless I can use an expanding flip-lock plug as a replacement? Dunno. Ronstan has a plug very similar to mine, but it has a "keeper" on it:

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/ronstan- ... cordNum=14

The keeper/retainer is basically a set of plastic legs with tabs at the bottom. Very nice, but would stick about an inch into the water underneath the hull, snagging all sorts of crap. Better to cut them off? Any other ideas? They look like this (this particular drain is too small):

https://www.westmarine.com/buy/yakgear- ... cordNum=30

Anyway, all thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated. In the meantime, I'm staring at a champagne cork in my "odds and ends" drawer..... Man, one of the reasons that I downsized to a DS was to AVOID plumbing.... here we go again!

I spoke with Rudy at D&R. He says that there should have been a brass plate glassed into my hull, into which to screw the plug assembly. There isn't one, the whole thing was just glued on, so either my hull #37 is from before O'day specc'd the brass plate or some later owner screwed with it. Rudy was of the strong opinion (in a wonderful Baaastan accent) that this is the perfect opportunity NOT to have a hole in the bottom of boat - glass it over and install transom plugs. I was already leaning that way, so that's the plan. Now let's see if I can get this done by the weekend, it's supposed to stop raining by then.....

Transom plug. Yes, you can forget to plug them, but hole in the bottom isn't needed. (I glassed over the outside end of the drain in my boat, it already had a transom plug).

Plug is kept on a lanyard tied to the boat. If unplugged, I hang it over the transom; hard to miss that way. Only take it out when substantial water has collected or when in long-term storage offsite; altogether not that often.

Alternative is to fit an autobailer in that location. More risk of really flooding the boat if it doesn't seal, but also added functionality that you may be able to sail your boat dry (probably not when fully swamped).