08 Venture drain plug flange leaking

W

Will-C

New member
I have always noticed a small amount of water in our bilge area. It started to increase. After our last week long cruise. I checked the three screws on the bronze flange that our threaded drain plug threads into, all three were loose. I had to drop a large zinc off the motor to get to the highest screw. I pulled off the flange which has some sort of flexible black sealant. I scraped it clean and drilled out the holes with a 5/16 drill and under cut the the holes where the screws go with cutter in a dremel tool. I used some West System Six 10 thickened epoxy adhesive. It comes in a tube that fits in a standard caulking gun. The tube features a two part epoxy that gets mixed by threading on a mixing tube on the end of the tube. I filled the three holes and actually coated the complete hole in the boat that goes into the bilge area with the same epoxy as it does not look like it was ever sealed properly as some core looked like it was exposed. After letting the epoxy cure for two days I drilled holes for the screws that hold the flange on to the boat. I installed all three screws and made sure they would come tight. I then removed the flange and coated the inside of the bronze flange with 3M fast cure 4200 and reinstalled the flange. The nice part about the Six 10 epoxy tube is that You throw away the mixing tube after unthreading the mixing tube to save the rest of the tube. New mixing tubes come two to a pack. At 22 dollars a tube the epoxy is a little rich but you don't have worry about it being mixed right. It comes with a plug that you can reinstall that separates the two parts and a nut that holds the plug in tight. I replaced our two lazarette covers and had done the same drill out under cut and refill with epoxy and redrill and used the same tube for that project. I'm not sure if the bronze flange comes loose on all Ventures but you might want to see it those three screws are tight in your bronze drain plug flange.
D.D.
 
Dave on the cc-23 we have the other type of flange? Its the same style as the cd22 where you fit the rubber cork type into bronze fitting .Remember the thread on ( inny's or outies )
 
Hi Dave,

Yes, the drain plug was one of the first areas that the MARCIA JANE got the "cut and fill". I had another area that there was persistent water leak from the drain on the fish boxes/step that was really hard to find. After taking out the SS drain housing, there was a small leak that looks like it was between two layers of Fiberglas. Same cure.

Love our boat, unfortunately the MARCIA JANE has not been out of our barn since the Delta trip. Can't wait to get it wet!

Kent
MARCIA JANE
 
Dave,

That's fascinating. When we got Journey On, we took her to Catalina Ile for the C-Brat rendezvous. Whilst tied to the string line at the Isthmus, I noticed that there was water coming into the bilge, and in addition the bilge pump was clogged due to manufacturing swarf. Borrowed a hand pump from another C-Brat, pumped her dry and came home.

When I looked at the drain fitting, it was held on with 3 #6 screws, not caulked and stripped. Actually it was held on by a small amount of caulking around the fitting. Replaced the screws with #8's, applied new 4200 and the problem was solved.

The real kicker was that I told the factory and apparently they never listened , since the problem occurred both in 2005 and 2008.. Which was true of the other leaks, such as the anchor locker. I sorta feel relieved that there are new builders. The problems would have been easy to correct, saved the factory money for warranty repairs and made a better product. Oh well.

Boris
 
We had the thru hull for the raw water wash down pulled out along with the side box step thru hull drains. Got all those holes glassed over. I kept the raw water pump hooked up with a long hose and a strainer so I can use it as a back up bilge pump or be able to toss it over the side and use it for a raw water pickup. I figure a couple more years and I'll have the boat to the way it should have been built to begin with. The thru hull for the raw water pickup was leaking but not where you could see it. But when it got pulled a fair amount of water came out. The way they installed and sealed the drain plug flange was just bad. No boat builder in their right mind would have thought that that would stand the test of time. It's comforting to know Boris told C-Dory years before our boat was built of the problem. Why worry about a silly thing like a leak caused by shoddy workmanship that would cost almost nothing to remedy. :amgry
D.D.
 
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