Daysailer II holes under seats at back

[JGREGORY@PARKER.COM]

Hi all,

I am trying to get my "new" 1972 DSII ready to sail and am wondering about 2 holes approximately 2" in diameter at the rear of the boat under the seats. I thought the seats were enclosed for floatation. Are the seats enclosed above these holes? The boat was outside in in the rain yesterday, and quite a bit of water came out of these holes and drained out through the back/bottom drain. I assume the water got in there from the cuddy somehow?

I will be removing the centerboard this week to repair the split on the front which I assume is from freezing, so I have a few days to figure this out.

Thanks,
John Gregory

[Roger]

There is foam floatation below the seats of the DS II, but not behind. This is the only floatation other than what is forward of the bow bulkhead. It is not airtight per se. The previous owner may have put holes here to access something or simply for drainage, but that sounds strange as there is a void below the cockpit sole, so water would drain FROM the cockpit into the bilge. That does not make sense to me. I have pictures of where the foam is located under the seats if you want to e-mail me roger02 att mts dott net. I can send you some pics by e-mail.

[JGREGORY@PARKER.COM]

Hi Roger,
I have emailed you this response.

After reading your response I realized my description of the holes' locations was not very good. Their is one hole located below each seat, in the cockpit, near the transom.

I have seen pictures of a bildge drain at the very bottom of the transom, and think mine may have had that at one time, and a previous owner had filled it in. Isn't the layup solid there? How does the bildge water get to the hole that I've seen pictures of? Is this drain necessary?

I think I have also seen pictures (maybe your boat?) of access ports from the cuddy to beneath the seats. Did you put closed cell foam under the seats?

Thank you for your help,

John Gregory
Portage, MI

[bkafer]

can you u/l pics of these holes.
Maybe the foam was blocking water from escaping and the last owner put in drain holes. Thinking this would help drain the water.

[Roger]

John,

Water inside the cockpit theoretically never gets into the bilge. While sailing and the dePersia bailer open, it drains directly from the cockpit through the drain tube to the outside of the bottom hull.

At a mooring, with the mooring drain open, rainwater in the cockpit fills up until to flows out of the upper hole in the transom. It is above the waterline and water in the sump should never get deeper than about 4".

Water that gets into the bilge, (the area below the cockpit) can get in through holes, cracks, loose pivot bolt washers, the cb uphaul, hull deck joints, inspection port screw holes that are poorly sealed, and leaks in the hull deck joint and deck hardware. Water in the bilge can only be drained through the bilge plug, (lowest hole) at the back of the transom. Those holes you describe are likely made by a previous owner and I can only guess at their function. The floatation in the seat bottoms was factory installed. Yes I did add inspection ports to install a mid cockpit traveller, and had to cut through foam.

The layup is not solid at the lowest part of the aft transom. The void bewteen the inner and outer hull is indeed only about 3/4" high however. the dePersia bailer tube spans this void, and the bilge drain is also immediately behind it. If you were able to see into the bilge drain, you would actually see the tube of the dePersia bailer. Water flows around both sides of the tube to the hole in the transom. As you can likely guess this is an ideal place for debris to collect and get trapped due to the narrow passages. Owners often sealed this hole over and made another hole off to one side.

[JGREGORY@PARKER.COM]

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

Should I attempt to resurrect the bilge drain? I could see the circular shape under the Bondo. There appears to have been another hole (that has also been filled) on the transom set off to the side (just as you described) that has been filled too.

I think for now, I'll just get it into the water and see how much water is actually getting into the bilge. Summer weather is here and it doesn't last that long in this part of the country.

John Gregory

[Roger]

assess the situation and determine if a repair is necessary... immediately, ... the next time the boat is out of the water, ... at the end of the season, ... or never.