Always a little bow heavy

[LandVF36]

I looked again this weekend. No slot, no drain. There is about 1.5 inch clearance between the deck and the bottom of the bow pulpit. I looked from the rode locker, and I could drill a hole up from below and let the water into the bilge, but I'm concerned that I'd expose the balsa core to an easy way to let water in (enough of a hard time keeping water out.

I think I'm going to look into installing a pair of chrome drains, one each side of the pulpit a few inches that would simply drain out below the rub rail by installing a through hull fitting and short piece of hose. This seems much simpler than trying to get 500-600 lbas of weight moved aft somehow.

[jon_e_quest]

I think early 'F-series' boats did not have the molded-in toerail drain. Both my '76 and '78 boats have it. My '72 Tri-Cabin does not ...and pools water. Complicating matters, Trojan placed the anchor rope pipe up where a drain should go and when the pooled water gets deep enough it drains into the bilge.

I like your idea of adding a drain in the deck. You can prevent any future core damage by removing a bit of the balsa from the hole you're making (a dremel tool is ideal) and back-filling with thickened epoxy to seal off the core (I used WEST around the holes for my fuel and waste caps.).

[LandVF36]

Great idea about the epoxy around the openings. I'll definately do that. Now, I just need to find the right drains. Found some PVC ones, but I'd rather find some bass and nickle or chorme plated ones so 20 years from now they are not the next guy's headache....

[LandVF36]

Fixed this last weekend too! I ended up installing 2 x 54 Gal flexible water tanks under the aft deck. I mounted them between the outer moslt stringers and the hull sidewall. When the boat was new, I think there were a pair of 60 gal gas tanks between the outer and inner stringers. The cradles are still there with the gas plumbing capped.
Anyway, the weight at the back fixed my standing water on the front deck. the water line at the transom dropped 2" an the bow raised just enought for the water to drain off and down the side walkways aft.
Since one of my fresh water tanks under the galley was cracked, and the other only able to hold about 20 gals, I have all the water I needed again for thouse 3-5 day trips.

[foofer b]

My dad had a boat that had a list to port. He solved it with a coupla hundred pounds of lead. If you don't plane out a lot, then 3-400 pounds in the stern would be a fast easy and reversible fix.