I've got a question about water drainage through the keel. It's a bit complicated, but I'll try to explain. Should there be communication between the bilge and the drain plug at the bottom of the keel? That is, should rainwater or snowmelt entering the bilge during the winter drain out the open keel drainplug? A couple years ago, I cut open the bilge floor to remove some waterlogged foam and then rebuilt that floor but installed a hatch that allows me to stick a handpump down to the lower part of the keel and pump out any water that gets in there. That hatch remains open in the winter. So there's defeinitely a pathway from the slanted bilge floor to somewhere near the bottom of the keel, which is a flat fiberglass surface. Should that area drain out the drainplug?

Here's more background:

At the beginning of the 2023 season, when we were ready to launch our boat, I could not find the keel drain plug. I also couldn't find a replacement that fit, so I filled the hole with epoxy with the intention to thread a hole through the epoxy in the fall and begin using a screw as a drain plug. In the past, when I removed the drain plug in the fall, there would be a high pressure, horizontal stream of water coming out of the keel for 30 seconds or so. In the fall of 2023, when I drilled a hole in the epoxy, there was only a trickle of water coming out. I was concerned that I'd pushed enough epoxy into the drain hole to seal off whatever areas used to drain water. So I drilled a couple other test holes near the drain hole, but no significant water came out of those. So this indicates to me that either 1) water used to leak in through the drain plug (even though I used to cover the threads with sealant) and the epoxy-sealed hole did not let in any water or 2) water would enter the keel from the bilge and the new holes I drilled did not penetrate the cavities where water used to collect. This spring, when I took the cover off our boat, I found that the bilge was filled with water up to the floorboards. I'd never had a problem with water in the spring before. So this indicates to me that either 1) water used to enter the bilge and then flow out the drainhole during the winter or 2) somehow enough water entered through pinholes in my aging winter tarp or was blown in through the bow or stern openings to fill the bilge up to the floorboards.

So I'm trying to decide if I should drill more holes until I can get water to drain from the bilge out of the keel or if I should just get a better tarp.

Steve Heinzelman

Elmo #612

Canandaigua Yacht Club