Water inside the bench seats of Javelin 14?

May 18, 2021
36
O'Day Javelin Barnegat Bay, LBI
I bought a '68 Javelin, had hardly been used in years, getting it ready and noticed small water leak where the bench seating meets the cockpit, especially when I sat on the seat to lean down for some sanding. Long story short, drilled some small holes along the bottom of the bench seats and buckets of water flowed out. Mopped it all out, let it dry for a few days, sealed up with marine epoxy, painting and getting ready to launch. Hull looks fine by the way. My question is where all this water likely came from - my suspicion is that it's been seeping in through dozens of hairline cracks between the rub rail and the deck, finding its way into the seats. I used epoxy to seal all those little cracks - not super good looking but hopefully will help? Someone suggested as an autumn project installing some ports under those seats to wet vac out any water that finds its way in - anyone else run into something like this?