Ebb,

Slight drips are indeed an interesting mystery, although an aggravating one. A bilge full of water sloshing through your lockers and up under your settee cushions moves out of the category of mystery into the category of horror show.

And no after some careful examination and testing today, I am now convinced that the seacocks were not to blame. The bilge pump is still not off the hook, but since I installed a new kit in the pump and replaced the line and added a one-way valve in the line I wouldn't be able to replicate the failure.

Yesterday's observed small leak (and perhaps the big leak of last Thursday) became easier to diagnose (at least I hope so) by unloading the starboard cockpit locker and discovering that all of the contents thereof were dry with the exception of my fortress anchor bag. I keep that anchor in its bag close to the aft bulkhead that separates the cockpit locker and main part of the boat from the lazarette locker. I also noted some discoloration of the wooden support board that runs longitudinally along the pegboard separator that is the inboard wall of the cockpit locker. This unfinished wooden board is the support for the upper shelf of the cockpit locker. Only the aft end of that board in proximity to the aforementioned aft bulkhead was discolored. The presence of water at some time in the past was indicated. Close inspection of that bulkhead from the cockpit locker side showed me that there were three places were wires passed though that bulkhead.

One place is the original installation of the wire that feed the stern navigation light. That wire is run over the top of the bulkhead and is encased in fiberglass and resin. It appears that this was part of the original installation. Blasting it with water from the lazarette side indicates that it is watertight.

The second wire is the loran antenna wire. It runs through a piece of PVC pipe, probably a bad choice, but the pipe is epoxied in place and the pipe is filled on the lazarette side with a white caulking compound, and taped. Blasting it with water from the lazarette side indicates that it is watertight.

The third place permits a set of two alternator wires installed by a previous owner or an agent of same to pass through the bulkhead. This installation consisted of drilling two approximately ¼ inch holes though the upper part of the bulkhead, and running the two wires though those holes Actually both wires run more or less through one hole and the other is left open. It does not appear that any attempt was made to caulk or otherwise seal these holes. Blasting these holes with water from the lazarette produced something that looked a lot like a horizontal version of Old Faithful. The most interesting thing was that when the blast was not made straight through the hole, but at an angle, most of the water ran down the cockpit locker side of bulkhead or rained on the immediately proximate area where my Fortress anchor bag is stored and in the vicinity of the darkened shelf support board. Most of that water entered the bilge aft of that flat nearly horizontal panel that covers the section of the bilge aft of the sump, so that it would not tend to run forward across the bilge sump access hatch and through the galley cabinet and out onto the cabin sole. In other words, most of the water would run more or less directly into the bilge, and so a skipper would not notice the intrusion of water unless the skipper looked into the bilge or if one ran with the starboard rail down for a long enough period that the bilge filled to the point at which some of the bilge water ran up the hull into the lockers etc. This is probably what happened to me last Thursday.

The other interesting thing is that some of the water runs forward from those two alternator wire holes in the aforementioned bulkhead and down around the starboard cockpit drain backing block, which is exactly what I saw yesterday while were sailing with the starboard rail down on a port tack.

So, since I no longer have an OB with an alternator, I pulled the wired back through the holes. Tomorrow after the area has dried adequately, I will fill the holes permanently and leave the wire coiled and secure on the cockpit side of the bulkhead in the event that I later decide to use them for an alternator or other purpose. Actually I have been thinking about a solar panel.

Regarding rubber plug seacocks, I will refer you to Nigel Calder's "Boat Owner's Mechanical and Electrical Manual. It's a wonderful book chock full of engineering quality drawings of just about every mechanical and electrical system that you will find on a boat and other helpful information to boat owners seeking to repair or improve their boats. Chapter 11 has a discussion of seacocks and lists the various types of seacocks. The rubber plug seacock is a legitimate type of seacock manufactured by Groco and other manufactures. You won't find them in West Marine, and I won't find them at my local boat yard anymore, but they were installed on many boats and are "true" seacocks.

Now as a to the wooden backing block issue, I am sure that there are other materials that would be more durable than wood, but again, rather old wooden vessels are still plying the waters, and you will find wood backing plates on many fiberglass boat through hulls. As long as the fitting is well bedded, I don't see why there would be deterioration of the block over time. Now wooden deck cores are something else again.

A young friend of mine once bought an ancient wooden sloop. Actually I think someone gave it to him. The poor mast-less thing had sat in one slip or another for years and spent a fair amount of time hanging on a hook off the Santa Cruz and Capitola piers. It needed a lot of work. My young friend had high hopes for it. His plan was to earn enough fishing commercially to restore it to sailing condition. Apparently, that plan did not materialize. I noted this morning that the local marine yard was cutting the boat into pieces. I just hate it when that happens.

The interesting thing about this is that that neglected old hulk of a wooden boat was sound after sitting in the water with little maintenance for many years. Some of the mussels on the hull would have been eligible for social security retirement had they no dried out. Since they are sawing the boat into small pieces, it will be very easy to inspect the various parts of the boat to see where if anywhere the wood was failing as the demolition continues. So far the wood looks pretty good. The hull and deck cross-sections look to be very solid and show no signs of rot, with the exception of a few isolated places.

I recently watched the same yard cut a Columbia Challenger into pieces after it went on the beach and cracked its hull. Other than the new hole acquired on the beach, it was flawless. That was one well-made boat. I always worried about the hull deck seam in the Challenger, but it was a well laid up cold joint and after forty years was a solid as new. I could find no dry glass in that hull or deck. All of the glass looked fully wetted out. Ahhh, but I digress.

Please post some photos of your new non-wood backing plates when you have them. I need to replace some head through hulls ay some time in the future, and would profit from your experience with alternative products.