[Rhodes22-list] communication leaks

[Joe Babb]

All,
I am reminded of the phrase "what we have here is a failure to 
communicate" and also Sir Francis Bacon's discussion of pitfalls in 
communication.

I "think" I have resolved my question for the moment.  My concern was 
that I didn't understand why water should be seeping out at the BASE of 
the through hull fitting in the lazarette.  I wasn't trying to find out 
specifically where water was getting into the boat originally.  I was 
trying to get an answer to why it was seeping at the base of the through 
hull (he said redundantly, once more).

What many folks including Stan missed was my remark that the boat was 
sitting on a hill with the stern downhill.  I should have shown a 
picture of the boat, but didn't.  In the pictures of the laz, I should 
have indicated with an arrow the direction of water flow towards the 
stern.  But I didn't.  Comments about it not being possible for water to 
flow from the bilge to the laz made me search in other directions which 
lead to serious concerns about the cockpit floor.  What was missed was 
the fact that the boat is sitting on a hill.  So it IS possible for 
water to flow from the bilge to the laz with the stern downhill.  It 
just takes its own sweet time about it.  The bilge does communicate with 
the lazarette and other regions of the boat.  This gives one a common 
place to sponge up water acquired via any kind of leak, above or below 
the waterline.  But the boat must be level or nearly so for gravity to 
do its thing.

After talking with Stan I have learned that there is probably nothing 
abnormal about my situation.  I still think it is screwy that water 
should seep from where it seeps.  Unless the boat has its nose in the 
air, like it does now, you'd never see this.  If the water was seeping 
from an intentional orifice in the laz, I would never have been 
worried.  As it is, it is possibly because the fiberglass tabbing of the 
cockpit to the laz floor didn't take just in that one spot.

In the course of investigation, though, I did find 4 of the 8 screws 
holding the table leg flange were stripped.  So I will be repairing 
that.  But the flange is glued securely to the floor anyhow.  As one 
person pointed out, this does not mean that water doesn't get in under 
that flange.  So when I have some time, I'll level the boat and fill the 
cockpit up and see what happens.
Hope all this makes sense.
Joe