Ya, access to the base of the rod holders and the area under them is necessary for the drains to be installed. I think you're on the right track with the top plugs. :head:

I picked up a pair of stainless rod holders with a rubber cap at a garage sale. I think someone on here put rubber hoses on the ends that drained to the bilge to keep the water off the stringers. Maybe in Tsubaki's "Make my life easier" thread?

Today I opened up the side panels and found that the rod holders DID have a rubber flange on the bottom of each holder.

Only issue was - the small ( 1/4" ) hole at the bottom of each flange.

Anyway, went to Home Depot, got plumbers caps wiith clamp and installed.

Done.

Which is what I said to do about 15000 posts ago. Just don't forget to get and carry a turkey baster along with you. Use it to suction out the water that will eventually accumulate in the rod holders. End of thread. :beer:

Ha!.... Destroyer you're funny! :you:

LOL well thank you.. :)

But this time I was being serious. I use the same setup on my V, which is Greenies sister ship (both 96 V21s). And yes, I carry a turkey baster on my boat to suction out the water from the rod holders. It works great. Eventually the rod holders fill with water from spray, slop, washing, whatever... and since the bottoms of the holders have a solid cap on them to prevent any water from getting into the hold and the foam down there I needed a way to get the water out of the rod holders. A turkey baster works perfectly... it's long, slim and cheap and fits right down to the bottom of the holders.. a couple squeezes and you're done.

Its a boat, it gets wet! I never worried about it!! Of coarse this is from a guy that saw a huge black spot on his boat once, went over to see what it was, and it flew away! It was a swarm of flys on some old bait! The only cleaner or wax my boats have ever seen was a bottle of bleach from time to time!

MJ, normally I'd agree with you, but after putting in the better part of a winter tearing out the deck and all the old, water saturated foam, then going thru the cost and work of putting in new foam and resealing the deck and etc etc etc... Well, I've come to believe that if I can keep the water out of there my foam will stay dryer longer. So I'm doing my damnist to do just that. The deck is sealed, I put in all new hatches and gaskets on the deck, sealed the rod holders bottoms, and repaired the tiny holes in the under gunnel rod holders corners. In short, I've made it as waterproof under the deck as I can think of.... and I'll be constantly checking to see if I've been successful.

I'm set up the same way - including turkey baster .