The cockpit drain issue surfaced a long time ago, and the purpose of the S shaped hose was discussed, but I don't remember what the reason for having it was. It seems to me it works like a drain trap....I do know that water stays in it. I dump some antifreeze in for the winter. The hull side of the drain is either a copper of aluminum tube (don't remember which), and was glassed into the hull. Same for the galley drain. I recall that someone's tube had nearly corroded completely through. If it did fail, unless you were able to intervene with your rubber stopper or a wooden plug, the boat would quickly sink, as there isn't any sort of valve in that line, and the hole is normally going to be below the waterline. You might be able to quickly shift all weight to the bow and to port to get the stern out of the water enough to stop it...but you better work fast and you'll be stranded up there. One could put in a new transom mounted drain, but then what do you do with the existing hole? Grind it out and glass it over? If you were going to do that, why not install a flush mount bronze drain, with proper seacock on the bottom of the hull? Flush mount for low drag. Is there a tool to cut a perfect bevel for the flush mount? If not, I assume one simply grinds out a nice bevel and then beds the flush mount in thickened epoxy, with a backing plate and seacock on the inside. I would leave the cockpit half of the equation alone, since the seacock it going to save you if the cockpit half fails, which isn't likely. It doesn't stay wet all the time so corrosion shouldn't be an issue. And as built...it drains very well. The next step is to go ahead and install another cockpit drain that does exit above the water line through the transom. I'd say somewhere in the top half of the rear cockpit seat, exiting well above the waterline. Hopfully it would never be used. I'd use Marlon mushroom fittings for these, and probably 1 inch hoses or bigger and would probably use a check valve in that line. When you compare the older boats vs. the newer ones, two differences are evident. The older boats only have the one cockpit drain, but do have the cutout for the motor mount. If you ever were pooped, the water would only fill to the level of the motor mount....about 6 inches or so above the level of the cockpit seats. The remaining water would have to drain through the one cockpit drain. Adding a second, larger drain about 8 inches or so above the cockpit sole would speed this along. The newer boats don't have the cutout transom....imagine that whole cockpit full of water.....but do have two cockpit drains...and these exit through the transom above the waterline. But in either case, if you get pooped bad enough to fill the cockpit, ALL hatchboards had better be in and the sliding hatch locked in place or you are going to be in big trouble. But with good drains in place, and everything locked down, you could probably survive some really nasty stuff....assuming you don't get blown out by the wave. Hmmmm....jacklines and a harness now too? Howard M17, #278 Audasea PS: If someone is starved for entertainment, why don't you plug your drains and fill your cockpit to see what happens? I bet she squats aft like a bass boat during a hole shot and half the cockpit water drains out on it's own. It would also be interesting to see how fast she drains, or if there is an equilibrium point where she simply squats in place with half a cockpit full of water. The trick would be generating an instant dump of 500 gallons plus to simulate a pooping. On 11/1/04 9:30 AM, "Rotortom2@aol.com" <Rotortom2@aol.com> wrote:

Funny! ( I mean the comment about a post-50's guy and the limp hanging thing.) I am 63, and refuse to comment on the applicability of that comment as far as I am concerned.

On another subject, the cockpit drain on my M-17 runs from the bottom rear of the cockpit, through an "S" shaped rubber hose, and out the bottom of the boat at the rear of the keel. Although I keep a rubber stopper handy in case of a failure of the hose or clamps, I am thinking of running a new cockpit drain from the bottom of the cockpit to the transom, similar to the new M-17 but minus the locker. I probably will use some sort of bronze tubing and glass it in. Has anybody done this modification, and if not, does anybody have any better ideas on this project? Thanks

Tom Woodworth M-17 #330 "Wild Hare" _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats