Bilge Drain Plug in a Sailboat

[AJS]

I''ve just recently installed a drain plug at the lowest point in the bilge. My buddy is deeply disturbed by this and feels it is unecessary. I look forward to the easy bilge cleaning at haulout and the lack of winter water in the bilge. He says fewer thu hulls is better and will never put one in his boat.
Are bilge drains very common out there? What do we think of the idea?

[WHOOSH]

AJ:

"Are bilge drains very common out there? What do we think of the idea?"
Some regions (e.g. N Europe) produce more boats with drain plugs than others (e.g. U.S.). Also, it seems to be a waning practice (more in the 70''s & 80''s from what I can tell). None of this means it''s a ''bad'' practice IMO provided the choice of hardware & installation are done well. And yes, the ease of bilge cleaning at haulout does invite one to do this; I miss the one I had on my Hallberg-Rassy.

I''ve stretched my bottom paint to 3 years + in the past and that''s a long time to rely on that piece of hardware. So I suppose location of the boat should make a difference.

Jack

[mikehoyt]

I had a drain plug instaleld in my Catalina. While out sailing one day it actually fell out!

I was not amused.

Never again with any thru hulls of any kind!

[Wega24]

This post is asking for trouble. I sure dont hope the catalina "haters" see it.

But in all reality, how can a drain plug fall out ...???

Of course drain plugs are great. besides of washing and cleaning. Here in the midwest it does rain once in a while..????
Plus if you have a large sea falling into your cocpit, you aint gonna sink..

makes sense to me

Thorsten
( with actually two drain plugs )