The drain on the stern (back of the boat by the rudder) is plugged while sailing. Unless you have a leak, the inside of the hull should stay pretty dry.
The plug inside the cockpit is part of the autobailer, which is the black plastic piece on the bottom of the hull . When you need to drain the cockpit, you open the autobailer by pulling the rubber plug forward, this opens a small flap on the bottom of the boat and the water is drained out as you sail. When the water has drained you can close the autobailer flap by pushing the rubber plug back in. If you are moving forward the autobailer should only let water flow out, if you are stationary it may flow into the cockpit.
If you have the boat on a dolly/trailer, pull the cockpit plug and the rod it is attached to in and out and check under the boat to see if the autobailer flap is opening/closing. If the flap is not opening/closing you may need to replace the rubber o-rings that are inside the autobailer, although I would recommend upgrading to springs that do not need to be replaced if this is something you have to fix.
Thanks to all!I would also install and autobailer.
My understanding is that as the Laser bailer (unlike the Andersen/Elvström kind) doesn't have a non-return flap, the inflow is similar to having no bailer at all. It should drain much faster, though, because of the wedge shape of the opening.My understanding is that the bailer just slows the in-flow down (but doesn't seal completely), and maybe helps suck the water out with a mild Venturi effect when moving.
The bottom line being, if you sail recreationally only, a bailer is nice but not absolutely necessary.an inch of water in the cockpit isn't hurting my very mediocre performance.