Floatation Tank Plug

[John Stevens]

I'm reading about a floatation plug. I don't have any plugs in my seats on the Spindrift. I was thinking of putting a 4 inch inspection port on the end of the seats.

Any thoughts?

TIA,

John

[Bob Hunkins]

A lot of folks put inspection ports in. You might consider a larger diameter port, since the most common reason to do this is to replace waterlogged foam.

When I did mine, I used a rotozip with a circular hole cutter. It was a lot easier than using a jigsaw and the hole was a lot more circular. If you do have a similar tool, just make sure there's enough clearance for the tool before you start.

good luck,

[John Stevens]

Bob,

Do you also have the a small plug for the water to drain out? If so, where is it? Does water actually collect in there?

TIA,

John

[Bob Hunkins]

On my Spindrift there is a drain plug located on the keelson, forward of the mast step. I capcized the boat once a few years back and after I got back to shore I opened that drain water came out. Otherwise there are no drain plugs (I'm not including the one in the transom and the elvstrom self-bailer, of course). To give me a better idea of what water was accumulating in side the bow tank, I installed an inspection port in the bow tank, and can mop out any water that collects there - usually only a few cups over the course of a year. I installed two inspection ports in the seat tanks, not on the forward end, but in the middle, so that I could install a midboom traveler bar that attached to the seat tanks. It's a little damp in there, but from what I can tell there's not a lot of water accumulating there.

On an O'Day boat I'm working on, there are small drain plugs located at the bottom forward end of the seat tanks. The few times its been on the water since I got her operational have shown no need to open the plugs to drain.

On other boats I have seen, the purpose of the inspection ports is not so much to drain water, but to allow access to the interior spaces to add backing plates for newly installed hardware and the like.

[John Stevens]

Thanks for the info Bob, I think I'll add an inspection port up front also.

I was thinking about adding a drain on the bottom of the seats, maybe one forward too. I just sold a Spindrift 13.5 and it had half inch drain holes in the seats and the forward compartment.

John