BEWRE: Transom Drain Plugs

[silverghost]

Beware : Transom Drain Plugs ~Just thought I'd pass this along~
In Ocean City NJ this year some idiot removed the outside transom drain plugs from at least 8 boats in one lagoon (my lagoon on Walnut Lane) while the boats were moored in their slips.
These are all behind private High-End Homes.
At least 2 boats partially sunk !
The Coast Guard rescued the others that were sinking.
All the boats involved were in the same lagoon.
It is not known what idiot did this. They must have been swimming in the lagoon in order to do this.
The plastic screw-in & flip-lever plugs are very easy & fast to remove.
I have since changed my transom drain to a bronze screw-in pipe plug style with a mating flange.
I make sure now I crank it in tight with a wrench.
With my big molded-in swim platform you must go way under the transom to get at this plug.
I have to wonder who & why they would do this ?
I guess this is the sort of world we live in today?
BEWARE~
Check your Transom Drain plugs.

[BUIZILLA]

I would look at the waiting list for slip rentals for a culprit clue...

[silverghost]

Good thought Jim~
However these were all behind Million $$ private homes !

[Schnook]

Be careful about tightening your drain plug too much - they're only screwed into wood and fiberglass. 'Someone' I know had to redrill his drain plug housing holes because the mounting screws got loose due to overtightening.

[Phil S]

That is just crazy-stupid.

Nail-on-the-head though....the world we live in.....

Wouldn't you love to catch 'em "red-handed" so to speak....just once ?

Always shoot twice....let the lawyers figure it out from there.

With kind regards,
Phil

[Ghost]

That is just crazy-stupid.

Nail-on-the-head though....the world we live in.....

Wouldn't you love to catch 'em "red-handed" so to speak....just once ?

Always shoot twice....let the lawyers figure it out from there.

With kind regards,
Phil

Makes you want to install an oil drain hose kit in a boat--attached to an acid tank...

[silverghost]

This year we also had a rash of minnow thefts.
I use lots of minnows for flounder fishing in NJ all summer long.
I buy mnnows at $11.00 per pint.
I also catch some myself.
Minnows are fairly hard to buy as nobody wants to set traps to catch them anymore~
Kids & retired seniors used to supply minnows on a regular basis~
Not anymore~
Not enough money in it I guess.
This year on my first trip to the shore I stopped and bought minnows beore I came into to. I brought a pint to the boat and put them in the flow-troll floating bait bucket.
The next morning only one minnow left there !
I was steamed~
My neighbor said it might be Sea Otters at work here.
Next week same thing happened!
Dad then drilled the bait box for a small brass padlock.
Friday the next week I stayed up late friday night in the enclosed porh with no lights on.
At 2:00 AM I saw a small rubber zodiac being rowed into our lagoon. Two guys were stopping at each boat that had a bait-box in the water.
They soon stopped at mine.
I ran out and startled them & they got out of there quick; but I got a good look at these guys & their NJ boat registration # .
It turned-out these guys were from Finn-Attics a local bait & tackle store & charter boat place. They were in their 50s !
The cops traced the NJ registration number but would do nothing beause they were well connected locals!
"What are we going to do ~ arrest them for stealing $10. worth of minnows ?" was the chief's reply.
It seems these guys like selling the same minnows over and over again !
Too lazy to trap them they would rather steal them !
When my neighbor asked about the Sea Otters I replied that I caught the two 200 lb "Sea Otters"
After I confronted these crooks my bait was never bothered again.

[jl1962]

Any chance the minnow thieves and the plug pullers are the same people?
:shocking:

[MOP]

Another thought to ponder! Over the years I have replaced a few transoms 90% plus were from brass tube/rubber plug style drains, the majority of which never seal properly within the transom. Any water left in the bilge seeps in around them ruining the transom wood, that would be the very first mods I would do to any boat. Now is a good time to thing about it, pull the tube out now let the transom dry over the storage period and install a bronze screw in type set into 5200 making sure the 5200 covers all the open wood! I am will to bet there are very few of our boats that are bone dry by the plug!

[realbold]

pull the tube out now let the transom dry over the storage period and install a bronze screw in type set into 5200 making sure the 5200 covers all the open wood! I am will to bet there are very few of our boats that are bone dry by the plug!
A bit off topic, but since MOP brought it up, I drilled the holes way oversized and filled them with MarineTex, then drilled them out. After bedding with 5200 do not tighten the screws all the way until after a day or 2 so you don't squeeze it out. Now the sealant is a compressed gasket and even if it does eventually leak, the screws are in the epoxy and not the wood.

[Pismo]

Kids having "fun"...

[MOP]

A bit off topic, but since MOP brought it up, I drilled the holes way oversized and filled them with MarineTex, then drilled them out. After bedding with 5200 do not tighten the screws all the way until after a day or 2 so you don't squeeze it out. Now the sealant is a compressed gasket and even if it does eventually leak, the screws are in the epoxy and not the wood.

I did a similar thing, I drilled for the 10/32 through bolt screws. Then I took a 5/16 drill and made 3/16" deep pockets which I filled and forced through with 5200 before insetting the screws, my engine was out so the inside got a good seal job also. Most all transoms are ruined from drain plugs and stringers not isolated from the transom wood, very few including Donzi do not isolate the stringers an extremely important step when rehabbing any boat. There should be absolutely no wood to wood contact, that way if one piece ingests water it does not spread to the other. Even my doubled stringers are isolated between the two pieces with mat and epoxy.

[BUIZILLA]

Then I took a 5/15 drill I'm sure there's some new math somewhere in here...

[handfulz28]

chinese drillbits
:D

[Ghost]

"220, 221, whatever it takes."

[MOP]

I'm sure there's some new math somewhere in here...

Nah Nah I fixed it picky picky!!!!!!:nilly:

[Walt. H.]

My thoughts on those boats that had their drain plugs knock out were that it was to teach them a expensive lesson not to speed thru the "NO WAKE ZONE" the next time they they go by other peoples docked boats, I for one felt like doing that a few times to many of the Sc*m bags that pass close by throwing a rolling wake into the marina I dock at and when you motion with your hands to slow it down they smile back at you and flag you off sometimes with their middle finger! They forget its easy for you to see or follow them next time to what marina they're going to be dock at.

My money says its payback with interest for pulling a deck cleat out of someones boat?