Keel drain plug - HR 29

[Quandary]

Water ingress

If the mast is stepped on the keel and it rains hard I don't see how you can avoid water in the bilge. Whoever knows some secret I don't know is kindly requested to disseminate it!

Daniel

I have a boat with a Selden keel stepped mast, my bilges are always bone dry and it does rain quite a bit here. Does H R not drain the water that gets inside the mast out again above the deck collar? most builders do. The masts have a foam barrier inside at this point for just that purpose.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

No problem, you can just as easily sink your boat by leaving out the log or E/S transducer.

The HR plug is there because the bilge pumps will inevitably not quite drain the bilge dry. Like Stork III I have also left mine, for 10 years.

The worry is that your bilge should ever get wet in a grp bopat!

 

[danielefua]

I have a boat with a Selden keel stepped mast, my bilges are always bone dry and it does rain quite a bit here. Does H R not drain the water that gets inside the mast out again above the deck collar? most builders do. The masts have a foam barrier inside at this point for just that purpose.

Before the present (designed by S&S) I had a boat that had a something alike that never worked 100%. A couple of reasons were that a conduit for cables has to pass through the diaphragm and the latter is so recessed that it is quite hard to check/modify it. After years of damp boat while on the hard and with a malfunctioning diaphragm above the deck collar, I appreciate the drain plug.
Daniel

 

[Quandary]

Before the present (designed by S&S) I had a boat that had a something alike that never worked 100%. A couple of reasons were that a conduit for cables has to pass through the diaphragm and the latter is so recessed that it is quite hard to check/modify it. After years of damp boat while on the hard and with a malfunctioning diaphragm above the deck collar, I appreciate the drain plug.
Daniel

It is important that all external cables dip on the outside of the mast before going in to the conduit so that rain drips off. It is not that difficult to fit grommets but I find looping the cables down slightly is enough. The lighting cables are normally protected and it is only the antenna cables I need to deal with.