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I have a related question, sort of. For things that go through the hull, like drains, bow eyes, stern lifting rings, etc ... when they are fastened and tightened, we're compressing two sets of fiberglass (inner and outer hull) and the foam that's between them. In the above example of inner "nuts" not fitting, could it be that the distance between inner and outer hull has increased for some reason (foam swelling, warpage of one or the other hull, or etc)???? The reason I ask is that my brand new boat after only about a dozen launch/retrieve cycles had a loose nut on the bow eye. I could get no proper answer on how tight to tighten it, and I am not completely certain what that assembly screws through (being a bow eye, I am guessing it is the heaviest phenolic spread over a large area, but the Whaler manual does not describe that area). Was my loose nut caused by a "shrinkage" of the hull in that area? Is the OP's inability to put his nut on the drain due to "expansion" of the hull in his boat?