Drill a Hole in the Bottom of Your Boat

Should you drill a hole in the bottom of your boat to let the water out?

So you are building a wood boat. You have slaved to create a beautiful water-tight hull. The hull is plywood. You coated both sides of the plywood with fiberglass set in epoxy to minimize water intrusion. 

You stitched the plywood together at the joints and coated both sides of the joints with fiberglass set in epoxy to create water-tight joints. 

You have probably cut yourself a time or two and more than one bead of sweat has run down your forehead. You once even forget to add the hardener to a batch of epoxy and the next day, when you saw the uncured mess, you shed a tear. You have given the proverbial blood, sweat and tears, along with lots of money, to create a beautiful water-tight hull.

The next step is to drill the drain hole in the hull. You measure and mark the drain hole location. You put the bit in the drill, position yourself and prepare to drill the drain hole. 

Then you pause.

Something is wrong. You put the drill down and ponder. You are about to drill a hole in your hull - the hull that you gave blood sweat, tears and money to make water-tight. If you drill this hole, your hull will no longer be water-tight.

For some silly reason, you think that you need a drain hole. But it doesn’t feel right - drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out. It doesn’t even sound right - drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out. A hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out - now that is ironic.

The purpose of your boat’s hull is to keep the water on the outside from getting to the inside. If you drill a hole in the hull, doesn’t that defeat the purpose of the hull? To which you answer, “But I am going to put a plug in the drain hole to keep the water on the outside from getting to the inside.” 

That, hopefully, will make your hull water-tight again which is what it is before you drill the hole. Except now, you are about to intentionally introduce a threat to your hull – the hole. 

If you drill the hole, you will then need to mitigate the threat that you intentionally introduced, with a plug. After which you get to spend the rest of your life trying to remember to install the plug and hoping that the plug holds.

Even if you drill a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out, the hole will not let all of the water out. There will still be a puddle or two that won’t completely drain. So, should you drill more than one hole? Should you drill five or ten holes?

Before you drill that hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out, you might ask yourself, why don’t I simply avoid this the threat in the first place? You realize that by not drilling a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out, you will avoid a threat to the hull integrity (the drain hole) and you will not need to rely on mitigation of the threat (the plug).

But there it is again. For some silly reason, you think that you need to drill a hole in the bottom of the boat to let the water out. So you ask yourself, why do I need to drill a hole in the bottom of my boat to let the water out? Well, for one, if you do not drill a hole in the bottom of your boat to let the water out, you will have to deal with water inside the boat. Yes, but don’t tell me that you gave all that blood, sweat, tears and money, to create a hull that cannot get wet!

Surely, a little water inside the boat is not the end of the world. If you built a boat that cannot get wet, then by all means, drill a drain hole. In fact, drill five or ten because one drain hole surely will not drain all of the water. And, do not put that boat in the water because if you do, it will get wet. And a boat that can’t get wet - now that is ironic.