Water in cockpit locker - O'day 22

[bdeakin]

Good morning, O'day owners --

I'm the proud owner of a new O'day 22, which I got for a song. This is my first boat and I'm fairly new to boating in general; only been sailing a season.

I noticed when I bought the boat that there was some standing water in a locker on the starboard side of the boat in the cockpit where the battery is currently kept. I pumped the water out with a manual bilge pump and I found that over time more water ran into this locker from forward in the boat, which I've since pumped out. I think this is probably just rain water that collected in the boat while it was out of the water, but I'm far from positive.

1. Should I be particularly concerned about this? Where could the water be coming from?

2. My panel has a switch for a bilge pump; any idea where this could be located on an O'day 22?

Thanks for your help, and I'm very new to the forum so if I'm doing something wrong posting here procedurally, please don't hesitate to let me know.

 

[Joe11688]

Good morning, O'day owners --

I'm the proud owner of a new O'day 22, which I got for a song. This is my first boat and I'm fairly new to boating in general; only been sailing a season.

I noticed when I bought the boat that there was some standing water in a locker on the starboard side of the boat in the cockpit where the battery is currently kept. I pumped the water out with a manual bilge pump and I found that over time more water ran into this locker from forward in the boat, which I've since pumped out. I think this is probably just rain water that collected in the boat while it was out of the water, but I'm far from positive.

1. Should I be particularly concerned about this? Where could the water be coming from?

2. My panel has a switch for a bilge pump; any idea where this could be located on an O'day 22?

Thanks for your help, and I'm very new to the forum so if I'm doing something wrong posting here procedurally, please don't hesitate to let me know.

I'm not all that familiar with the O'Day 22 as I have an O'Day 222, but I would check the self bailing cockpit hose and replace it if need be. Another suspect for leakage is the gunwale molding. The caulking under this molding is only good for 10 years. If your molding is made of Aluminum with a rubber strip, you'll want to remove it and re-caulk it with a polysulfide caulking. If it's plastic, you should use Dow Corning 795 caulking which is kind to plastic including hatches. Check the archives on this site for instructions on the best way to remove the molding. I have written extensively on this subject in the past few years. I wouldn't bother removing any other hardware unless you positively know that it's leaking from that particular hardware. Stainless steel bolts have been known to seize and break when you try to remove them.
Joe