A friend of mine recently launched his Catalina 400 after several winter repairs were completed. One of the repairs was to the forward shower drain pump. He went down to the the night of the day that the yard had launched the boat and found water up to the floor boards. After panic and action to save the boat, the source of the leak was located. The through-hull for the shower drain was open and the check valve was leaking by. The bildge pump was not able to keep up with the leak. when I heard about this I promptly closed the through-hull valves on my shower drains. I have never had a problem with this but the results could be disasterous. It points out two problems: 1. There should be a way to prevent in-leakage if the check valves fail and, 2. The bilge pump in the Cat 400 is undersized. I don't know whether the later Catalinas or some wise owner out there has a cure for this, but I would be interested in your input.
