What are these stern holes for?

I have 1990 Procraft 180 fish and ski. What are these holes used for. One I plug before going out on the water, the others, I have no idea. Does one of them look as though something is broken off? Thanks for any and all help.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

Does the boat have a livewell?

Re: What are these stern holes for?

Could be anything. Look on the inside and trace the hoses to what each goes to.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

Boat has two livewells. One of front and one behind.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

brianwrites said:

Boat has two livewells. One of front and one behind.

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There is you answer.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

Well you have to get the water from somewhere for a live well. I would assume that one of the holes is the intake for the live well .

Re: What are these stern holes for?

The one on the left looks like a 3/4" intake for a livewell or washdown pump. If you can get to it from inside the boat, it should have a sea **** right at the transom, so you can shut it when not using the livewell. Without a sea ****, if your livewell pump housing breaks or hose connections fail, your boat could sink.

Also, it looks like there's enough threads protruding to screw on one of these strainers, to keep your pump from clogging with junk.

http://www.iboats.com/Screw-On-Stai...21630627--**********.317809498--view_id.40105

I bet the other two are drains. Fill and drain your livewells while the boat's on a trailer, and you'll figure it out quick enough. My livewell drains are below the water line just like that. Bilge pump thru-hull fittings are never below the water line.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

and everyone can keep guessing, but until he traces out what each goes to, it's all just a bunch of guesses.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

The left is probably a raw water intake (is there a pump on the inside?), the center is probably a drain (livewells or cooler?), the right looks to be a bilge drain ...

Re: What are these stern holes for?

The left is probably a raw water intake (is there a pump on the inside?), the center is probably a drain (livewells or cooler?),

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How could he find out for sure ????

Re: What are these stern holes for?

Don S said:

How could he find out for sure ????

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I understand your irritation with our guesses, but they are at least somewhat educated guesses. The left one looks like a 3/4" livewell pump thru-hull, and since it appears to be plastic, probably it is part of the pump itself and not installed with a sea ****. (If so, I think this is a Very Bad Thing. Livewell pump tiny screws strip or housings crack and fail more often than drain hoses, so I believe livewell pumps below the waterline should always be backed up by a sea ****.)

This is just an assumption and was just meant as a suggestion as to what the OP should be looking for.

Tracing the hoses is often not feasible. That's why I suggested draining his livewells and watching what happens. I should have pointed out that there may be other drains he has not considered, such as the anchor well drain, any drains under the cockpit, any built-in cooler or fish box drains, etc.

As to how he could find out for sure? Here's what I'd do, while the boat was on a trailer:

1. As Don says, try to visually track the hoses attached to each drain. If that doesn't work....

2. Dump some water into anything with a drain. Livewell, anchor locker, fish locker, cooler, under the console, battery box, wherever. Note where it comes out. If that doesn't work...

3. Get a friend. Position friend inside boat. Go outside the boat to the transom holes. Apply mouth to transom holes and make trumpet noises. Ask friend where he hears sound coming from.

This was an excellent question by the OP. Every boat owner should be aware of and fully understand every hole in his boat below the waterline. You are correct that he should find out for himself, and not rely on internet guesses.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

Now he is getting answers he asked for. He could probably guess what they might be, finding out exactly what they are is what he was wanting to know. If he can't trace the hose, stick a water hose into the hole and see where it comes out. Then he has a real answer and knows for sure, and hopefully writes it down in his boat info book.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

As an FYI, my boat has FIVE holes below the waterline. I hate every one of them. Apparently from the factory, my boat had an intake for the washdown and for the livewell. Both were attached to sea cocks at the inside of the transom, which was good. What was bad was that both of these intakes were plastic, affixed to the transom with plastic nuts, sealed at the transom with sealant. The plastic nut and the sealant were not exactly a strong bond. Ironically, the act of opening and closing the sea **** loosened the seal, and caused a leak between the inner transom and the sea ****.

Fortunately, I discovered this while at the dock, closing my sea cocks. I watched water dribbling in at the transom nut with the sea **** closed. I have since replaced all my thru-hulls with new sea cocks, BRONZE thru-hulls, 3M 5200, and tightened the nuts real good.

I also noticed that all of the hose-to-fitting connections were attached with only one hose clamp. All those attachments now have two hose clamps each. The hose clamps with the slots cut all the way through the belt making oval holes are weak; the more expensive marine clamps with the stamped not-cut-thru slots are way stronger. I'm not risking my boat or life on cheap hose clamps.

The good that came of this is that I understand all of my below waterline holes now. If a leak develops at sea, at least I can take my sock off and know which hole to stuff it in to.

Re: What are these stern holes for?

Way I checked was pour water in live wells, in your bilge and see where it goes.