Steven Cyr's Stella Blue Site

Stella Blue a Mainship 400 Trawler

Cockpit Drain Modification

Two of Stella Blue's cockpit drains are set so the top of the grate is raised above the deck surface, which makes for a puddle of standing water in the lower corners of the boat. Depending on which drains were used in your boat, there are some things you can do it improve the drains. If you have the type my boat has, you can unscrew the grates with a deck key and modify the grates. Howie from New Bedford, has taken his drain grates to a machine shop and made slots between the holes, to allow better flow. It will aslo help keep the drains clear of larger fish scales if you fish on your boat. I do fish with my 400 and fish scales are always a problem with the small round holes in the grates. A few fish scales left covering the drains will flood the cockpit area in the next rain storm.

These drains also have ball checks to keep seawater from backing up through. It's hard to see the plastic floating ball in this picture but it is in there. Below is a picture of the bottom side of the drains.

I followed Howie's advice and modified mine over the winter. They do much better with small debris like fish scales now. They also keep up with washdown much better.

I've been told that there is also another type of drain used on these boats with a removable grate, which is held in place by 4 screws. One of the Mainship list members, who has this style drain offered a simple solution that worked for his boat. He raised the little metal drain cover grates with plastic spacers around the screws. Now water can exit more quickly. The height can be adjusted in each case by the number of washers used. It will also let small debris like fish scales pass under the drain grate, rather than plugging up the grate.

There has been some concern by some members on the Mainship list, that water will not drain quickly enough, if green water comes over the bow. I don't get too concerned about this. Much more water can escape through the gap at the bottom of the transom door than will flow through the drains anyway. I've had the boat in much worse conditions than I had ever planned for and still never took any appreciable water over the bow. These boats are not intended for rough conditions on open seas like some other ocean going trawlers. These drains should be adequate for draining rain and the conditions that this boat is intended for.

Email - srcyr@sbcglobal.net