Drain-Heads Up

[Jack Shellac]

Well, we all joke about forgetting the drain plug, but how about the drain itself? I'd been looking off and on for a couple of weeks to see where water was getting into my bilge and couldn't find anything. Yesterday, I was taking the drain plug out and felt the whole thing turn a little. I grabbed ahold of the plug and the whole thing came off in my hand. It's the bronze type fitting with a 1/2" plug. Looking closer, I saw that it was secured with three tiny screws about 1/4" long that were barely biting into the fiberglass. There was a thin bead of sealer on the drain flange that had been doing most of the holding for the 12 years that the boat has been built [a tribute to 3M 5200, I guess]. It's a miracle that it hadn't fell off before. I guess the lesson in this story is that anything is possible. Don't forget the plug and check the drain, too.