ebb:

You commented earlier in this thread about no one reporting water over the cabin sole = and no one appears to have taken that lead.

I have on several occasions, a few of which I will recount. The first I recounted earlier was when I first bought the boat and the motor lassarette was leaking. A second time was when the hatch was left open in advertently. Another time one of my through hull hoses spring a pin hole leak. A fourth time was this summer when the deck was stove in (when I did need the power pump to bail - I didn't know the water was from the rain). Of course, with the bilge full of beer, it took a lot less water to fill the bilge. Lastly, when laid up, there was a leak in the chain plate, and over the course of the winter enough water had dripped in to fill the bilge. That would not seem to be a problem, since the boat was laid up, but if the battery had become inundated, and discharged, it would have been totaled.

I have also been on a sinking Triton and watched as the water came over the cabin floor - then the battery went dead killing the radio, lights, everthing - including motor starter. (We did not sink, as it turned out). I have always been thankful that the Ariel has a deep bilge, not like some of the flat bottomed boats - such as the Pearson 26.