Safety & Training
“Plug it Up!” Have you ever had a water pipe in your house break? How about a toilet hose connection or even an outside water sprinkler line? Quite a mess, right? But not life threatening! Now how about a hose or hull breach in your boat? Did you know that a 2-inch hole in your boat only 1 foot below the waterline would fill a 55-gallon drum in 40 seconds?! While we can’t prevent the unexpected due to equipment failure, collision, or other forms of impact such as running aground or hitting a foreign object, we can be prepared by having yet another emergency tool at our disposal should the occasion arise. I am speaking about the very small, inexpensive, and potential lifesaving TAPERED WOODEN PLUG.
Jim Rich
These plugs come in a variety of heights and diameters to conform to even the most irregular and unpredictable shapes of a hose or hull breach. Made of tapered soft wood for a snug watertight fit, these are often drilled for permanent attachment to your fittings. Tether a sized wooden plug to each fitting, ready to pound into place in case of failure or leakage. Have other (non-tethered) plugs available for emergency in the event water would enter a circular, oval, or irregular hole caused by maintenance failure. These are available from any marine store or online from Amazon. A package containing a variety of sizes will cost you less than $20. In addition, I recommend keeping at least one other type of plug on board. It is a much larger plug made of a foam material that is completely flexible. Rather than pounding into place, the user compresses it by hand into the hole, stopping or greatly reducing the inward flow of water as the foam returns to is original shape. This material can also be cut and forced into elongated openings using a putty knife, inserted into the ends of broken pipes by twist compressing before inserting, and easily plugs leaking hoses. There are two companies that manufacture a similar product: “TruPlug” and “StaPlug”. Both are available on Amazon for $19.95. Until next time, Happy and Safe Boating! Jim Rich Safety and Training Officer
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