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Hello all,
Today while launching my 19' Outrage I inadvertantly forgot to put the bilge plug in. After motoring out at trolling speed a little ways I realized I'd forgotten it. No problem I though and also told my wife... once we get her up on plane the water will drain out of the bilge and we can plug it up. However, while the water level when we were putting along was just below deck level and confined to the bilge, when we got up on plane more water starting coming in and filled the rear two feet of deck with about an 1' or so of water.

I thought the boat should drain when up on plane? Does the drain hole need to be protected on the outside of the hull with a clamshell vent? Mine is not which could explain why more water was forced in while at planing speeds.

BTW I've taken her out 3 more times and I'm becoming more and more impressed with this 18' hull. I understand now why this hull is a legend among legends.

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JJS,
All of the 18's I have seen have had the clamshell vent over the sump drain tube.
Does yours have any holes where a clamshell used to be?
Maybe in 1991 they stopped putting them on?
Maybe others with the same year boat can give us a little more information.

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Joe,
I just took a peek and it looks like the clamshell had been crushed and or corroded off... only the base remains. I'm assuming that this caused quite a bit of turbulence and probably caused water to be forced up the bilge hole rather drain. Hopefully when I replace the clamshell vent she'll empty when shes on plane.

Thx for the reply and I'll let the board know when I get it resolved.

John

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JJS,
Perko still sells the Clamshell vents however they only have 3 mounting holes. Most people drill the other two holes in the vent to match their hole pattern because Whaler used 5 holes to hold the Clamshell on.

http://whalercentral.com/photogallery...?photo=349