Well it's been a while since I updated this, that's not to mean I haven't been busy. During the summer it got quite hot, so much so that weekends I often could only spend a couple of hours at the boat yard.
One of my problems with my new boat is that when on land, since I've owned her she's only been in the water for 2 months, the bilge would fill up with water after a good rain storm and I believe that is caused by 2 problems. The main culprit is the cockpit floor. Just like the Pacific Seacrafts, the whole floor is removable. But unlike the PS which has nice jam latches to secure the floor mine, only a couple of screws - which never really tighten up well. Plus the weather stripping was thin and old.
Before I would tackling that problem I decided to add a garboard bilge drain plug, that way any water that got in the bilge would just drain out. Talking to a number of boat owners here in the yard, seems like most of them have one installed- really nice to have over the winter.
I researched on line - garboard drain plugs and how to install them. Wish I could remember who's site I came across, but I followed his directions and that worked perfect! Brought mine from Hamilton Marine in Maine as they had one that would be flush with the hull!
Fist thing to do was find the bottom of the bilge! Echhh- I don't think my bilge has been cleaned in over 25 years. Sucked out the oily water with my shop vac- and it was very disgusting! Then cleaned and cleaned- scrubbed with degreaser-- found lots of gunk but no tools down there. Still not done cleaning! Maybe a couple weeks project.
Next I took my right angled drill and drill a pilot hole through the hull to the outside from the top of the bilge.. put a wire through from the outside in and measure the distance to the bottom. Outside I marked it and drilled a shallow hole where the plug would go through, then drilled a shallow hole at the outside of the bronze drain plug, the exact depth of the thickness of the plug, so it would sit flush with my hull.
After I checked the sizes I drilled a hole for the key on the left side, this is so that there's no chance that the plug will turn in the whole and then drilled the main hole through he hull!
Nice to see that the hull is over an inch thick here and my calculations on where the bottom of the bilge is, was dead on!
Filed out the key hole and then router-ed out the hull in the area scored by the big hole bit, the exact depth needed to make sure the plug was flush with the hull.
Did a dry fit - fits perfectly!
Now I drilled the hole for the bolts that would secure the plug in, then tapped them - I decided I would use silicon bolts as that also made it possible for me to bond the plug with the boats electrical system.
Used 5200 - as there was really no reason to ever remove it. Finished - you can see that the plug sits pretty far down on the boat and after the rains we have had, there's no longer any sitting water in my bilge. This comig weekend I should be finished with the cockpit floor latches.