Transom Drain Hole

After rebuilding the aft bulkhead, I thought I would build a PVC pipe drain running from the cockpit through the aft well to the transom drain hole. When I realized that would leave the aft well with no drain unless I had an off set drain somehow built in, I just decided that the original design would be fine. But I needed to re-glass the bulkhead and well floor (the inside of the hull) in order to seal it all. So I pulled the old drain hole tube. What a mess. The wood in the hole had also rotted. On top of that, the stringer in the well had also rotted. So I went to West Marine in Tempe and bought a new Drain Tube. It was 3" long so I had to cut it with a tube cutter to fit. I scraped out all the rotten wood inside the transom drain hole and cut the stringer back 3 inches. I scraped the rotted wood out of the stringer as well.

I mixed up a batch of resin, hardener and 403 filler. I filled the void in the transom drain hole and the stringer as well as the space left open by the removed portion of the stringer. Then I wrapped the new tube with 2 wraps of cloth wetted out with the filler mix. Shoved it all through the transom from the rear and spread out the cloth inside the well to make a decent seal. once this was done, I tapped the tube from the rear with a hammer and smoothed out the resin/cloth once more inside the well.

                                         Ready for glassing the well with cloth & then paint.

Aft Bulkhead 2

First experience with West System. Stuff goes on perfect! I put a new skin on the front of the bulkhead of 1 1/2 oz matt. Then the back of the bulkhead I filled the void where I removed the rotted plywood with resin soaked fiberglass pipe wrap insulation (1/2" x 4"). I used 3 layers of pipe wrap in two tiers, one fitted to the sloping floor and one above that. Then I laid a strip of matt across the top and the bottom of the pipe wrap. When it cures, I will lay a skin of cloth over the whole bulkhead in the rear well. Some paint and it will be time to move on to the main cockpit floor.

 Front of Aft Bulkhead with new matt skin:

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

 Inside rear well / back side of Aft Bulkhead:

 



How am I going to drain the cockpit through this well between the aft bulkhead and the transom?

Stay tuned !