Water in the keel can be hard to find. Since you sailing a on fresh water lake it would be hard to tell if it is coming from the lake or deck through the "taste" test. There are weep holes that allow water into the bilge. I would find a way to figure out which hole the water is coming from by some means.
There are a few things to look for from known water ingress places.
1. The packing glad will leak when ever the shaft is turning; engine on or spinning while sailing. Cannot stop this unless you retrofit with a dripless system.
2. Air conditioning system. It depends on your system on where the water condensation goes. On some boats it goes both overboard through a thru hull and/or drains into the shower sump. If either are plugged will spill overboard into the bilge. Some systems my just drain into the bilge.
3. Water tank fill- May leak when filling water tanks. I think I have this problem. Will investigate further when I get to the boat.
4. Compression fittings leaking. All the water plumbing is hooked together with Whale compression fittings. Hard to trace some fittings to see if they are leaking. This one can be easy if you hear the water pump pressurizing the system and no faucet is on.
These are the most common areas. Hope this helps.
Melissa
Catalina 445 owners group:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/Catalina445/info
