Plug Below Battery Rack on 2002 32 + 2

tjackson · Post by **tjackson** » Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:43 pm

I've owned my 2002 32 + 2 since 2014. I just splashed and there was a trickle of water collecting in the bilge. The source of the leak was a round hole in the hull amidships where a round plug had dislodged over the winter. This hole is directly over the keel. I replaced the plug and the leak was fixed. It is located in a very difficult place to reach without removing the batteries and removing the wooded tray that the batteries sit on which is glassed in. There are no drain plugs in the keel on my boat. Does anyone know what the purpose of this hole and plug is? Water may have entered the keel and this is a concern. I am new to this group and would appreciate any and all comments.

Post by **Tdelaney** » Tue Apr 26, 2022 9:42 pm

I have a garboard plug in this area on my 32 on the port . Maybes yours was sealed by previous owner?
Tom

tjackson · Post by **tjackson** » Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:54 am

Hi Tom,
This is not a garboard plug. It is a 1 1/2" hole that is plugged with a tapered rubber plug located amidships below the battery rack. I don't understand why it it there in the first place.
Thanks for your help!
Tim Jackson
Tory B
2002 32+2
Wickford, RI

Post by **Pitou** » Fri Apr 29, 2022 9:18 am

tjackson wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:54 am Hi Tom,
This is not a garboard plug. It is a 1 1/2" hole that is plugged with a tapered rubber plug located amidships below the battery rack. I don't understand why it it there in the first place.
Thanks for your help!
Tim Jackson
Tory B
2002 32+2
Wickford, RI

Can you get a picture or two to post?

Post by **Nancy** » Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:45 pm

tjackson wrote: ↑Fri Apr 29, 2022 8:54 am This is not a garboard plug. It is a 1 1/2" hole that is plugged with a tapered rubber plug located amidships below the battery rack. I don't understand why it it there in the first place.

Hi Tim --

What a head-scratcher. It's hard to understand why this would be there without an accompanying garboard drain plug to drain the keel. Hope you can provide some photos.

tjackson · Post by **tjackson** » Sat Apr 30, 2022 11:07 am

Here are two pics. One is of the bilge with the red replacement plug that I inserted and the second is the original plug that was dislodged. Thank you all very much for your helping me to solve this mystery!

Post by **Pitou** » Sat Apr 30, 2022 5:49 pm

tjackson wrote: ↑Mon Apr 25, 2022 5:43 pm I've owned my 2002 32 + 2 since 2014. I just splashed and there was a trickle of water collecting in the bilge. The source of the leak was a round hole in the hull amidships where a round plug had dislodged over the winter. This hole is directly over the keel. I replaced the plug and the leak was fixed. It is located in a very difficult place to reach without removing the batteries and removing the wooded tray that the batteries sit on which is glassed in. There are no drain plugs in the keel on my boat. Does anyone know what the purpose of this hole and plug is? Water may have entered the keel and this is a concern. I am new to this group and would appreciate any and all comments.

Thanks for the pictures. They help paint a much better picture. The plug seems to be in the bottom of the bilge pan directly over the keel as you describe. It seems that you have water inside of your keel and that the plug prevents that water from trickling into the bilge pan.

DO you have any cracks in the gelcoat of your bilge pan? They're not uncommon to devlop. If so, water is most like leaking in under the gelcoat and collecting. My only thought is that a former may have filled any bilge pan cracks and drilled a hole for this plug to try and dry things out and never finished the job before selling and you've been left with the problem.

How deep of a hole is the plug stop set in to?

It's too bad that you're just noticing this 8 years after purchase, but I'm sure that it can be figured out by making the effort to remove the items that are making access difficult in order to get in there to have a good look, dry things out and glas that plug hole for proper seal. Probably a better project for off s eason on the hard.

Post by **RobS** » Sun May 01, 2022 6:26 am

Probably used as an access port to wet-vac out (and clean/deodorize) the bilge keel from water that collects down there and gets stagnant and stinky.
Is the bilge keel full? If you remove that red plug does water come up and out from the bilge keel ?

Post by **Nancy** » Sun May 01, 2022 7:16 pm

You might want to consider installing a garboard drain plug next fall to let it dry out over the winter. This would also reduce the risk of keel damage from ice expansion. Had that once on a boat (not an Albin). Did the fiberglass repair, installed drain plug, end of problem.

tjackson · Post by **tjackson** » Tue May 03, 2022 12:28 pm

Thank you all very much for your valuable input. It's now obvious that this wasn't a standard practice for Albin during the layup process. I will be meeting with a local shipwright, a fiberglass expert and our yard manager to formulate my plan of action.
Cheers!
Tim Jackson
Tory B
2002 Albin 32 + 2
Wickford, RI

Post by **Nancy** » Tue May 03, 2022 10:28 pm

That's a perfect plan! Let us know how it works out. It's always good to have the solutions posted here for future reference.

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