When I refurbished my centerboard, I took the opportunity to install a
flap-valve of my own design and construction into the cockpit drain. I
have NEVER had any water in my cockpit -- and Lake Michigan can be VERY
choppy.
Essentially, it is just a rubber flap that closes against a flat frame
whenever water tries to come up the drain. But it allows water to drain
out just fine. It is installed just barely down inside the rectangular
shaped hole of the drain. I have removed the wooden board that obscured
that hole. Of course, there is a hole through the frame of it just
exactly large enough for the centerboard halyard to go through with no
clearance.
I know it's working because, whenever I'm in choppy water I hear the
constant (or intermittant) "suck-slap - suck-slap" sound (it's really
more of a "thhhhT!-thhhT!" sound, and nothing more than perhaps a drop
get's through.
The original design is really unfortunate in the sense that, even doing
something like stuffing a rag around the hole won't really work. The
shape of the centerboard slot, being triangular and narrowing toward the
hole, makes it so that a wave forcing itself upward develops tremendous
hydraulic force.
I know if there were enough montgomery 15 boats out there, I could
market this thing and make a million.
O
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Steve McClellan - M15 #152 - Chicago
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