DaySailer.org Forum

Currently I have a 1" hole in the base of my transom where some type of drain had previously been installed.

If I look inside the hole, I can see the transom plywood exposed.

Parsing the message board, I have seen suggestions to use PVC piping or brass tubing for the rear cockpit drain.

I have also been looking at drain plugs like the:
http://www.iboats.com/Nylon-Drain-Plug/ ... _id.237221

or

http://www.iboats.com/Nylon-Drain-Plug/ ... w_id.49388

What are the trade-off between the various solutions, and which would you recommend.

Thanks
Bill H

If your talking about the drain below the deck(DS2) they look just like the original. The one above the deck has a swaged in brass pipe that a rubber stopper blocks (any marine supply store will have these)

Whatever you and up doing, just remember to install the plug it before you launch! I forgot to last year during the first launch. Nothing like a little excitement to get the season going!

I suggest sealing the exposed plywood in your transom. A coat of poly or similar should take care of it. As far as the fitting/drain I would use a fitting called a thru-hull which can be installed in the opening and a rubber expanding plug that can be installed in the thru-hull and removed for draining while your DS is out of the water. These fittings and plugs are available at most marine supply stores. If the thru-hull projects passed the transom more than a ½ inch or so you can trim the excess.

Like Mr Plywood said you have to remember to put the plug in before launching. Many of us have had a time or two that we didn’t. I keep my plug attached to the boat on a small lanyard so even if I forget to put it in its only a few inches away and can be put in pretty quickly if I forget. Brad

The solemn duty of the youngest crew member is to check the plug

And +1 on the lanyard.

If you want to seal exposed wood, use epoxy, and preferably one that's formulated with low viscosity so it can wick up into the wood as far as possible.

SystemThree makes two suitable products (other vendors may have similar offerings, but I'm familiar with the SystemThree line). They have a RotFix epoxy which flows almost like water, and is really easy to mix (unlike similar products it's not thinned with solvents). It's part of a system that is designed to deal with wood that's not only exposed, but shows some signs of rot, but it can be used by itself.

The downside is that you are unlikely to use up even the smallest package on your boat. However, it's great around the house - often a sensible alternative to replacing exterior wood trim is to treat it.

For boating use, their laminating epoxy would work nearly as well. A laminating epoxy (unlike a glue) is formulated to easily wet out glass. While it is definitely thicker, it does wet out wood quite well. And it's a great epoxy product for laminating (fiberglass repairs). Unmixed, the shelf life is near infinite, so you can keep it around safely for future tasks.

If you're unsure whether your exposed wood ever got wet, you can treat it with a bit of borax solution, or a proprietary borax-based product. That would prevent existing rot to grow under the epoxy. In either case, the wood should be very dry before you encapsulate it.

As usual with expoxy, you need to follow the mixing ratios with the highest precision, as well as other instructions.

In response to your original question, I installed, in my DSII this summer, a drain similar to the one shown in your second link. It replaced the original plastic drain. And becoz the original plug was missing, I was forced to use a piece of cork instead to plug the hole... it worked but it always scared me that it might/could fall out. The new drain went in easily and I've yet to forget to tighten the plug before putting in... though I did forget to tighten the self-bailer... twice last summer! And should it be necessary, replacement plugs are easy to get. Yours wishing I was sailing today...

Well I went ahead and bought a 1" brass drain tube and stopper at West Marine.

The sales guy recommended I use a 3M 5200 adhesive sealer to install.

I reamed out the 7/8" hole to accommodate the 1" inch tube.
There was a little bit of plywood rot, which I removed.

I cut the tube to length, coated the area with the 5200 stuff, and installed.

I'm starting to think this was not a good idea. I probably should have used some type of epoxy to seal the wood.

I hope it holds for a while and prevents further wood damage.

I've got to get out on the water.

Bill H

I sure wish I could get out on the water. Unfortunately there is about a foot of ice with two feet of snow on top of it so I sit and wait ever so patiently.

Sounds like your fix is temporary. You mentioned that you removed some rot. I assume that means only the wood that you reamed out to make the hole bigger. You should be able to get by for a while but if there is rot in the transom the affected area should be removed and repaired and the thru-hull reinstalled. It is highly recommended that you at least epoxy the existing hole until a more permanent repair can be made. In the meantime HAPPY SAILING !! Brad

That sales guy's advice might be fine for installing these in a fiberglass hull, but like Brad, I'm doubtful about this for the long term.

The problem with 5200 is that it will be nearly impossible to get this thing back out to make a proper repair - people end up having to "saw" through the bond either with wires or coping saw blades.

And if you've had some rot, you definitely would want to remove wood quite agressively and then treat it with borax or BoardDefense or something so that the fungus is stopped, before sealing it in epoxy.