For a sudden emergency leak in a sailboat that is letting in water, you need to plug the hole fast. Such holes may occur if a through-hull fitting breaks or the boat strikes an object in the water that breaches the hull. The Forespar TruPlug is the perfect solution and will work in many different situations.
Historically and until now, sailors carried tapered wooden plugs in a variety of sizes to plug a broken through-hull fitting in an emergency. Experts advised wiring a plug of the right size to every through-hull in the boat (often more than a dozen in a mid-size sailboat) and keeping a mallet handy to pound the plug into the hole.
For a hole in the hull, often larger than a small plug could fill and of irregular shape, sailors throughout history have usually had to improvise by stuffing pillows, cushions, hastily cut pieces of wood or other objects into the hole to slow the leak while trying to fabricate a better plug to fill the breach. The sailing literature is full of such stories, some successfully resolved and others not. A sudden hole has been many sailors’ nightmare.
You can sleep easier now, however, if you have onboard a TruPlug, shown in the photo above. Go on to the next page to see how it works and learn more.
