davismwfl
New Member
Ok, so I admit, I started boating a little strangely. I went from friends smaller boats growing up to my own 1969 28' Owens sport fisher, which was an inboard and 10ft beam. No drain plug, just an inboard with a shaft seal I replaced for a dry version after packing it a couple of times.
So bringing me to today, I have a 1995 250DA Sundancer and it has a drain plug that I have to be very aware of. I sorta understand since it is a trailerable boat that the drain plug lets water that gets in a boat exit. After all I learned there is not such thing as a dry boat. But why a drain plug? What is the engineering reason versus just a bilge pump like my sport fisher had? The only way water got out of the bilge was us pumping it out with the sport fisher. Is the drain plug just convenience?
I fully admit ignorance here, but I am an engineer and like to understand the reasons not just the results. I can come up with lots of hypothesis for the drain plug, but I am curious as to the real reason that maybe I am either overthinking or just missing.
So bringing me to today, I have a 1995 250DA Sundancer and it has a drain plug that I have to be very aware of. I sorta understand since it is a trailerable boat that the drain plug lets water that gets in a boat exit. After all I learned there is not such thing as a dry boat. But why a drain plug? What is the engineering reason versus just a bilge pump like my sport fisher had? The only way water got out of the bilge was us pumping it out with the sport fisher. Is the drain plug just convenience?
I fully admit ignorance here, but I am an engineer and like to understand the reasons not just the results. I can come up with lots of hypothesis for the drain plug, but I am curious as to the real reason that maybe I am either overthinking or just missing.