I suppose drilling a hole every year will work.
I did spend a couple hours over several days installing the plug. I managed to measure the location so that the very bottom of the opening barely cut an arc out of the lead inside the keel so it is at the bottom of everything. I do have some tools and experience that may not be available to everyone. It required a rt. angle drill to place the pilot hole where I wanted it from the inside. It also required a small grinder to prepare the surface of the inside of the hull and the top or the keel for 2 layers of 12 oz. bi-ax S glass that I installed with slightly thickened
epoxy resin . This added hull thickness that extended at least 8 inches on every side of the installation. I used a couple of hole saws working from the outside. First the larger hole saw to cut in to the depth of the plug's flange. I used the pilot hole I had drilled from inside the keel as my guide. This larger hole saw was just the size of the plug flange. I was careful to only cut to the depth of the flange thickness. Since I had added the bi-ax inside the keel this left a thickness that was greater than the hull's original thickness under the flange.
Then the smaller hole saw could still use the original pilot hole to drill completely through the hull. This hole was the exact size of the plug body. I used a rasp to finish the fit. I had to use a 1/2 inch chisel to remove the glass laminates that remained between the inner hole and the flange cut. I did touch up the flange cut a couple of times. I had left it a little shallow and now that I had the outside radius cut I could use the large hole saw without the pilot hole. If you do this pay careful attention to the hull shape and don't drill perpendicular to the vertical. When I was satisfied that I had the flange just deep enough to fair it flush with the hull I located the 4 bolt holes that would attach it to the boat and drilled them. One of these went into the lead. Pay attention to the materials the plug and the fasteners are made of to avoid any galvanic potential. I roughed up the new
epoxy surface inside the hole so any excess 5200 that flowed in when I bedded the plug would stick and masked the outside of the hole so the excess there would be easily cleaned up. I bedded it and tightened the fasteners. Now I have a permanent plug that drains the bottom of the keel space.
It did take a little work but most of us are "maintenance junkies", right?
TD
