Thanks to Ed, Commanderpete and ebb for all of the comments and suggestions. I have sailed this boat ninety times since I restored it. I have sailed it under widely different conditions, and yesterday's sail was not unusual. This was not a complete restoration since the boat was basically sound, and previous owners added a number of features that improved the boat. The bilge pump with its PVC pipe was one of those previous-owner-installed features.
Replacing that PVC bilge pump line has been a priority, but not a high priority, in as much as my bilge was always dry as a bone, and my pump worked adequately well. The PVC line just ran through the lazarette locker bulkhead with only a bead of silicon on either side of that bulkhead, and that was a bit odd.
Ed, in answer to your question, yesterday I was just out for a single-handed sail. I finally figured out how to tie the tiller to the jib sheet in a manner that will allow me to go below and play with charts and my GPS while the boat sails itself to weather in a moderate swell. I wanted to test my system under various conditions and various headings. When I reached the halfway point in the time allotted for my sail, I turned around and sailed more or less north to Santa Cruz. I was below a lot yesterday while I headed both south (starboard tack) and north (port tack), so I am pretty sure that the water came in when I was heading downwind, and I was, of necessity, in the cockpit hanging onto the tiller, while the swells pushed my transom around.
For most of the day I was heeling between 30 and 35 degrees. On the return trip I was heeled to 40 degrees and clipping alone at 6.2 knots, but that is speed over ground. 40 degrees is not unusual for me, and this spring it has been the usual angle of heel due to the wind. It is not unusual for me to hit 45 degrees. Last week I was heeling to 45 degrees with a double reef in the main and heavy wet swells, but no water entered the bilge. This is one reason that I believe that the water came in yesterday while I was running dead down wind. The other reason is that I was below for extended periods of time while I was close hauled and heeled over, and water below was not evident. I fail to see how water entering the lazarette can get into the bilge, since at least on my boat the lazarette locker is complete sealed off from the rest of the boat and drains into the outboard well.
Today, I emptied my menagerie of sails and gear from my cockpit lockers. All of the contents of those lockers were dry with the exception of one sail bag that is located on the bottom of the starboard locker, which was wet on the very bottom, consistent with the other wet things in the main salon. The port side was pretty much dry.
Again, the shelves in the V Berth and main salon were absolutely dry as was the anchor locker in the forepeak.
I pressure-tested the bilge pump line by inserting a one inch hose into the bilge pump outlet, and allowed the pressure to build in the line until it more or les back-fired and blew the hose back out of the hole. Don't do this at home kids. It will foul up the flaps in your bilge pump. After doing this three times with the bilge pump handle in various positions, I discovered that I could NOT force water into the bilge through the bilge pump outflow line. I did succeed in jamming the pump (a Guzzler 400) by blowing one of the one-way flaps the wrong way.
I decided to replace the bilge pump line anyway, since this has been a priority, and I have ascertained that other than the flaps in the pump itself, there was no check valve in the line, the PVC Line has always been worrisome, and there was no fitting of any type where the PVC pipe passed through the lazarette bulkhead. Although I could NOT simulate the leak, I decided that there is a possibility that the bilge pump line was siphoning water directly into the bilge. I installed a bilge pump kit consisting of a new diaphragm and two new one-way flaps. I then removed the PVC line, which was a pain because I did not have a hacksaw blade. All I had was the saw blade on my very small multi-tool. I replaced the entire run with new one-inch reinforced bilge pump tubing. I allowed enough extra tubing to permit two raised loops, one in the cockpit locker and one in the lazarette. I haven't decided yet whether to vent one of them or not, since with the rail buried one or the other loop will still be below water on some headings, since they are below deck. I installed a one-way valve in the lazarette locker. I installed the equivalent of a threaded cistern fitting through the lazarette locker bulkhead. This was a gasketed fitting with threaded plastic nuts and gaskets on either side of the bulkhead. I threw on some silicon for good measure.
I tested the new system and it works.
To check for other areas where leaks might have occurred, I flooded the bottom part of the lazarette locker today to see if it leaked into the cockpit lockers, and it didn't. Once you fill it up to the bottom of the hatch that leads to the cockpit it drains into the cockpit anyway. I inspected both sides of that bulkhead. Outside of the aforementioned siliconed PVC line that ran through that bulkhead and one small hole through which a couple of wires pass at the very top of the starboard side of the bulkhead, there are no holes where water can come though. The stuff below that small hole was dry yesterday, so that was not where the leak occurred. The cockpit lockers did not have enough water on them to leak, and the stuff beneath them was dry anyway. I sprayed the entire bulkhead from the lazarette side under pressure, and no water came through with the exception of the one small hole where the two wires pass through the bulkhead.
The boat sat all night last night, and no additional water entered the bilge. Neither the cockpit drains nor the sink appear to be leaking, but it is conceivable that the top of the sink hose might have leaked. I will have to check that when I am underway again.
In 2002, I re-bedded all of the hull deck seams forward of the lazarette locker. I filled the screw holes with epoxy and went back to short screws after filling the joint with 5200 and re-bedding the rub rail with 4200. Frequently I sail with either rail buried, and on the week before, I buried both rails for some time with no leaks, and an absolutely dry bilge. Again, if the hull-deck seam were leaking, the shelves would have been wet, which they were not. The only area with no shelf is the starboard cockpit locker. So it is conceivable that a section for the rub rail that has never before leaked did leak for whatever reason. Again the chainplates in that locker were dry.
Tomorrow I hope to sail again, so we will see what happens.
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