Cockpit Drain Plugs?!

[Strider]

I have two metal drains at the rear of my cockpit, leading to plastic
pipes that exit in the transom. All looks like factory finish to me.
The metal drains in the cockpit have a female thread on them and I
wondered if the GK originally came with a threaded bung for each of
the drains...

Does anyone have any knowledge on this, or indeed Heath Robinson'd an
alterantive?
Thanks
Pete

[Nic Fieldhouse]

Hello Pete,

Sundew, my 1979, hull number 249 has the same and I once wondered about their purpose. I would advise against plugging them, even temporarily, for obvious reasons. Additionally, what if you left the boat for a time with the plugs fitted? Rain water could eventually fill the cockpit to hatch level, then leak into the boat. To avoid back-fill when the boat is heeled over and when close-hauled, the following should be done: Buy new reinforced hose, but longer. Route the port cockpit drain to the starboard transom skin fitting and vice-versa for the starboard. The hose needs to be long enough to prevent it from kinking and therefore restricting the flow.

Regards,

Nic

Eur Ing Nic Fieldhouse BEng (Hons) CEng MIMechE GradIIMS
Telephone: +44 (0)1798 342926
Mobile: +44 (0)7411 740 789
Web: www.Fieldhouse-yacht-surveys.com

[Chris Hawkes]

Practise foam golf balls on eleastic through drains in to cockpit from transom (method bit like plastic flaps on dinghies). Elastic long enough that any water in cockpit pushes ball away and drains. When racing shorten elastic (mine goes over engine controls but could be a clip)to get good tight seal. Lovely dry cockpit specially when running / broad reach when boat is flat where as crossed drain hoses won't help. If you do the maths you have got to have a lot of rain and leave boat for long time to fill cockpit to level of hatch, earlier problem is water in cockpit lifts blow and water enters rear locker via crappy low lip. Hope this helps
Minx GBR 3387T
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

[Strider]

Thanks Chris & Nic for your input.

I like the idea of something along the lines of Chris' suggestion - I
can see that working nicely.

Nic - I know we complain about the weather a lot, but crikey fill up
the whole cockpit, I think we'd be living on boats if we had that much
rain!

The main occasions we face a full cockpit is when we're motoring down
the river, and also when we're all piled in the cockpit and on the
third bottle of rum - benefit is though it washes away the spillages!

Going to acquire myself some new balls. and see if we can make her
watertight...

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