Drain Plugs!

[garethrow]

As part of enjoying retirement I am attempting to build myself a small epoxy ply dinghy from a kit. I would have liked this to have been a Trouper, but alas, they are no longer available as kits. Never the less I am making progress with a Chesapeake design. I want to fit a drain plug in the bottom so that whilst she is stored upright on a trolly, any rain water finding its way in darins out. Ideally I wold like a robust version with some sort of backing plate on the outside of the hull that bolts through to the flange on the inside, but am struggling to find one. I think, if memory srves me right, that my old Storm 17 Gwennol Teifi had one like this.

Does anyone have ideas of where I might find such a fitting to go through 6m of ply??

Many thanks - in hope!

Gareth Rowlands
Ex S17, current BR20 Halen Y Mor

[Matthew P]

Hi Gareth     

I fitted a standard drain plug in the bottom of my CLC Northeast[er] but found it slow to drain and fiddly to screw-in after forgetting to put in before launching.  So I replaced it with a quick-to-deploy Andersen Mini self-bailer (2nd hand off Ebay) that even does the job it is designed to do and gratifyingly sucks water out when under sail.  Although it sticks up a bit from the bottom of the boat it's located in just front of a thwart, so itsn't a nuisance.  And when retracted its flush with the hull on the outside.         

Are we allowed to discuss non-Swallow Boats here?  Yes - I think so!

Matthew
BR17 Tarika
CLC/Fyneboats/Peacock boats Northeast[er] Hilda

[Llafurio]

Hi Gareth,
this could fit your bill: https://www.toplicht.de/de/pumpen-sanitaer/lenzstopfen-cockpitabfluesse/4812/lenzstopfen-messing-rund?number=4330-033 .
C.

[garethrow]

Matthew / Claus, many thanks for your suggestions.
Self bailer - I doubt I will ever row or sail fast enough for it to work as a bailer, and I find they always seem to leak a little at some point when you don't want them to!

The brass / bronze? fitting might be difficult to operate with fingers, and at 25mm long is well in excess of the hull thickness (6mm), so I am continuing to look for a better solution. Am toying with the idea of fitting a conventional bung but making a matching backplate to go in the outside of the hull to bolt through the hull to the bung flange.

If anyone has a Storm17, particularly a wooden one made by SY, the appropriate fitting may well exist in the hull by the step of the mizzen mast. Is there a brand name on the fitting I wonder?? (spot the tenuous link to Swallow Yachts!)

Regards

Gareth Rowlands
GRP BR20 Halen Y Mor, ex wooden S17 Gwennol Teifi

[Llafurio]

...
The brass / bronze? fitting might be difficult to operate with fingers, and at 25mm long is well in excess of the hull thickness (6mm) ...

Yes, the brass fitting cannot be operated with fingers but requires a screwdriver, and if you cut the slack from  the original 25mm length, what protrudes on the inside of the hull is just the thickness of the nut, 8.3 mm.
I have that fitting in my Drifter and it works fine as a drain in case the overall tarp cover gets damaged during the winter.

[Llafurio]

Gareth,

I remember we had a discussion here in 2022 about good drain plugs/bungs for the BR ballast tank. https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/?page_id=17&URL=https://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php?topic=3046 .

I there recommended the metal body Osculati drain plugs because they have the widest drain opening diameter, for fastest outflow from the tank.  https://www.osculati.com/en/11189-m-014383/drain-plug

And we recently installed one of these in a Drascombe Lugger, for draining the cockpit while the boat is out of the water, but not well suited for the BR ballast tank draining because of the small opening. https://www.amazon.de/dp/B08T97YKVJ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details .

[garethrow]

Thanks Clause

I did post a query about drain plugs some time ago as I was struggling to find one to suit relatively thin epoxy ply hull (6mm) and wanted one with a flange on the inside and outside to bolt through.  I ended up buying two plastic ones and cuting the flange off one to match and place on the outside of the hull. Seems to work OK but was not easy to fit.

Regards

Gareth Rowlands
GRP BR20 Halen Y Mor