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I've had a fair bit of water come aboard in the last couple of legs and think I've located the problem. The drain hole on the gunnel just forward of the winch, which is the only drain hole and it could be located a bit better as when at anchor the water pools closer to the winch. but I digress. Anyway I was probing inside this drain hole and found a small hole inside the drain on that I could feed the probe wire into. It seems that between the top join on the toe fair and the bonding fillet between the deck and hull on the inside there is a cavity or maybe small cavities. bit hard to te without grinding the whole thing to bits. Anyway with the amount of water running down the deck trying to get out through this one and only little hole I imagine there is a fair bit of pressure forcing the water through.

I bought a round bastard file and increased the hole size and fitted a piece of tube. I was going to source some fibreglass tube but found an old VHF antenna that appears to be carbon fibre or similar so I cut some of that and fitted it in the hole with epoxy filler ( only epoxy I had ) leaving it protruding a few ml outboard so the water doesn't stain the hull ( something I read somewhere on this site ) and hopefully I will now have a dry bunk.

I was surprising the amount of water that was getting in. after between 24 and 48 hrs offshore in moderate to heavy conditions I was spounging about 4lt or more from under my bunk in my food locker.

the only way I know how to reduce photo sizes on my phone is to email them to myself and select the smallest option, can't we have some function that reduces the size of images during the upload process?

Hi Rob,

I had a similar problem with the drain holes I drilled through the toe rails of my Mark 3 becoming perforated after some years. It looked to me as though the cavity had been filled during manufacture with a filler which was not completely waterproof and which got washed away when subjected to water for a prolonged period. I was able to coat the inside of the drain holes with epoxy without having to fit pipes.

I was told recently that the fillers used by boat manufactures during the 1970s contained asbestos. This practice probably continued until sometime in the 1980s. Therefore anyone drilling or grinding this area should take precautions.

Rob, I am about to replace my anchor and am considering a Manson Supreme. If you had to buy another anchor, would you choose the Manson Supreme again?

Steve

Steve I can't speak highly enough about the Manson. The bloke I'm in company with has been sailing all his life and started working the wooden sailing ketch's in Bass Staight. He was a staunch supporter of the fishermans anchor and believed there was nothing better, but in a muddy bottom they slice through the mud he now has the supreme. The Manson just keeps digging in deeper and deeper. Mine has held on the south side of Curlew Is. where the bottom is all round rocks, other boats were having a hard time, and in soft mud you'd better man up to recover the sucker, on the side of an island with a steep bottom sheltering from 35+kt winds it's held fast and I've been able to get a good nights sleep. The only time it has let me down was in Sydney Harbour outside the fish markets when I didn't put enough chain out due to the very tight conditions and my greeness, it'll hold at 3-1 no worries but I had less, nowadays I put as much out as I can There is a similar anchor but the Manson is the only one approved by Loyyds I think. Geez I should be selling them eh?

Hi Rob
what size Manson supreme do you have? Looks like there is a 7 or 11kg that would be suitable for a tophat. I assume bigger is better.
Cheers
Nick

pretty sure I have the 25lb one I went biggest for boat size

http://www.manson-marine.co.nz/SitePage ... mSizes.htm

I use a 27lb CQR.....works every time!

I dragged twice on the cqr but that's not to say they are all crap mine was a knock up probably made in China and I spent some time underwater studying it's performance on sand and it was just dragging on it's side, it also failed in mud with weed on a tide change the gullet filled with weed and she dragged. Ive been told that if a cqr is built correctly and is not worn where it pivots they are fine.'

I've got an old Bruce anchor, I used to think they were pretty good but I have read some ordinary reviews, hence I'm thinking of upgrading at some point

the bruce is good, I have a 2kg one that I use on the tender that I've used as a lunch pick on Sundowner and it held in 3kt tidal stream without chain.