speaking of anchor drains
I have an Ericson 38 that I keep moored at Handy Boat in Falmouth, Maine, and use the launch service to get back and forth to my boat. Next door to Handy Boat is the Portland Yacht Club which runs Thursday Night beer can races from June through late September. I enjoy the short beer can races all summer, but forgot that in late September the starting time is moved from 6 pm to 5:30 because of the earlier sunsets.
In September, we had a Nor’easter blowing for a couple days, so I hadn’t been to my boat for several days before the final beer can race. The wind blew to 40 knots and we had a lot of rain and a short, steep chop at my mooring, which regularly put water over the bow and over the anchor locker. When my crew and I finally approached my boat from the launch, I was happy to see that she was still sitting at the mooring. But as my crew and I were heading to my boat, we saw many of the other boats that we regularly race against already putting their sails up, and jockeying for position near the start line. It was then that I remembered that the start time had been changed to a half hour earlier and that we were already running behind because of the earlier race start.
Usually the first thing I do when I get to my boat is check and drain the bilge if necessary, start the engine, and then drop the mooring and put the sails up. But because I was so late getting to my boat this final race afternoon, I decided I didn't need to check the bilge-- which had been pretty dry all summer-- and instead, immediately started the engine, dropped the mooring line, and headed directly to the start line, while my sole crew member removed the sail cover and began hoisting the mainsail.
When I put my boat in gear, I noticed that she was barely responding to the throttle and was really slow to steering input. I looked behind the stern several times to see if I was dragging one of the many lobster traps placed around my mooring, but nothing was there. I then thought it was probably just the accumulation of a summer's barnacles and muscles attached to the bottom. The slow speed bothered me so I checked the prop wake again, but it seemed ok, and I simply couldn’t figure out the problem. I kept looking to the start line, and realized we missed our start, but only by a couple of minutes or so. Because there were only two of us on board, neither of us went below from the time we hit the start line until we rounded the windward mark, some 2 miles distant. We were focusing on sail trim and speed, or the lack of it. At this first mark, I could not help but notice that we were unusually slow compared to the rest of the fleet, and again kept checking to see if we were dragging something. Usually we catch and pass a few of the slower cruising class boats, but today, nothing. Again, I saw nothing in the water behind us, assumed the bottom was really dirty, being late in the season, and sent my crew below to get some beers for the relaxing downwind leg.
She came back up with the beers, but then told me that she saw water splashing over and through the floor boards, and asked me if that was normal? WHAT??? NO! Not Normal by any means! I panicked as any good captain would, scrambled below, checked the bilge and saw that water was lapping at the floor boards, and immediately turned on the bilge pump. I didn’t have an auto bilge pump switch at that time, as there was not one installed when I purchased the boat, and the bilge had always been pretty dry. We also started pumping with the whale gusher. I then guzzled my beer as any good captain would, and planned my next move. I checked the vhf to make sure it was working, started the engine to insure that the pump had plenty of power, and kept it running in case we needed to withdraw from the race and head back to the marina. I then went back below, crawled around and checked every through-hull, starting from the stern, and the prop shaft, but couldn’t find any leaks anywhere. I checked a second time without luck. This was puzzling to say the least. We continued racing and when we were approaching the finish line near the yacht club, we could see that the water level was slowly falling. The water, after more than 25 minutes, was finally gone.
When I got back to my mooring, I had another beer, or two(?) and was still trying to figure out why I had so much water below, and casually opened the anchor locker on the foredeck, and to my surprise, it was full of water. I then remembered that I had cut an access hole just below the forward end of the anchor locker the year before, to allow access to fix the bow light and bow rail. It was about 3 inches high by 4 inches wide to allow me to get my hand and forearm under the deck, and I simply never got around to repairing it. WOW! I then realized that the Nor'easter we had for 2 days, had splashed water over the foredeck, and along with accumulated rain water and a blocked drain hole in the anchor locker, had filled the anchor locker until it sent the water below through the open access hole I had cut. The drain hole for the anchor locker was filled with sand and paint chips which created the problem. I’m glad I wasn’t out in the Ocean sailing a longer passage with water coming over the bow, or I would have had a much more serious problem. I found out that even the smallest things, like a blocked anchor locker drain hole, can lead to big problems on a boat. I now regularly check my anchor locker first, along with the bilge, every time I get to my boat, before I go sailing, to make sure there are no small issues that could lead to larger issues. I have already installed a waterproof access hatch cover to eliminate the hole in the anchor locker I created the year before, and also installed an automatic bilge pump switch.