Hauled the boat at Crowley’s in Chicago today. Damage to the fiberglass along the keel is not a big deal and the glass guys here will do a repair over the next few days.
The big shock came when I saw water seeping out around the drain plug fitting. When I grabbed it it came right out in my hand. I had been taking on some water since the grounding, but in manageable quantities – a few gallons a day. But if the fitting had dropped out when underway I would have had a 1″ hole. Making matters worse I don’t have access to the hole on the inside because there is a drip pan for the motor directly over it.
I did look at this when I hauled after the grounding, but not closely. The brass fitting had taken some damage from the grounding, and I guess the screws holding it in place loosened and dropped out along the way.
I’m feeling very lucky… Maybe my bilge pump could have kept up, but glad to not have found out :-). That’s a good argument for robust pump capacity.
We’re going to fill the hole. I wasn’t using the drain anyway.
I also found that the propeller tips sustained minor damage so will pull it off and send it out to be repaired and balanced.
I have a list of boat repairs and improvements that I’m working on while here. Current plan is to stay here until the first weekend of November then head downriver.
Boating Adventures 
Yikes! So glad you didn’t start taking on water on the big Lake. That’s scary.
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Yeah. I was watching the leak – checking the bilge constantly and thinking of the possible cause, but none of them were alarming as the leak wasn’t increasing. I have plugs and tape if a hose bursts or something, and good functioning seacocks. But this was the one component I hadn’t considered.
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Good thing you were somewhere you could easily get this problem fixed. Phew!
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Is this orifice really meant to be a “drain plug”? Looks more like a cooling water intake (maybe abandoned?) Boats of this size do not usually have a drain plug? Do you need this drain plug? Seems like a bad location for a drain plug? In necessary, I would look at another location. However, I am not familiar with your boat bilge so this may be your only location option?
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Thanks for your comment. Definitely a drain plug. Not uncommon, and nice to have most of the time. But it was unusable because the threaded plug was on the inside and that area of the bilge is not accessible because a motor pan was added somewhere along the way. I put a new fitting on with the plug accessible from the outside and bedded it in with 5200.
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