I'll go with Peter on this...
While ours is an H23, I had somewhat similar problem: I noticed dark spots on the carpet headliner under the main and forward hatches, so I unscrewed the hinges to rebed them. Lo and behold, after the screws were removed, I found brown water oozing out of the holes under the forward hatch hinges- on the outside! After doing some sleuthing, I found that there is a plywood core in that area, and the deck slopes down from the main hatch. It was really soaked! Water probably got in under the mast step, the main hatch hinges, or the radio antenna wire hole (which is drilled right through the deck!). On the advice of our good friend Gordon at the Nelson Sailing Center in Island Heights, NJ, I ended up drilling a couple of 3/8" holes about 1/4" deep at the lowest point from inside, inserting paper towel "flags" into the holes, and letting the water wick out. It took about a month, but the flags are now dry. Fortunately, the deck still appears to be solid. In your case, maybe the culprit is the chainplate or the lifeline stanchions? I would suspect anything that's screwed in from the outside that's higher than the area where you're finding water. It certainly won't be easy...good luck! Jim Maroldo s/v: Lil' Wass Ett
