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Drain Plugs!

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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:

--- Quote from: garethrow on 13 Nov 2022, 14:52 ---...
The brass / bronze? fitting might be difficult to operate with fingers, and at 25mm long is well in excess of the hull thickness (6mm) ...

--- End quote ---

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.

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