Maxwell 500 Windlass - Leaking

[Momentum M]

I just had 3 weeks vacation on the boat...mainly rainy but still managed some good sailling.
One morning as the admiral slept in and rolled on her tummy...she slipped her toes between the fore end of the V berth mattress and the wood panel to find out that it was wet
Out came the tool and I took the mattress out and the front panel.
The story is that the floor (under the mattress) goes some 3-4 in fore of the wood panel.  That little lip happen to be right under the windlass.  The windlass has a small weeping hole at the bottom of it on the port side (to the left of the sticker on the picture).  The left over from the fabrication of the boat..IE: saw dust, dust, etc.. combine with the water made quite a thick paste and did keep the water and moisture fore of the bottom molding (the one that is there so that u can screw in the bottom of the wood panel).  Anyhow...weeping hole or not...water was dripping from that area.
I removed that small piece of wood and dried it, cleaned up and reinstalled it.
As a temporary solution (I was on the hook) I tapped a garbage bag (similarly to a shower curtain) so that any dripping would follow the "curtain" fore of the lip and drain into the bilge.  Maybee it may become a permanant installation!!!

You can also see on the picture that this had occurred many time...most likely since day one.  Unless you happen to check your mattress or sheets after a good downpour it may go by unnoticed.

So, all boat owner that do have a windlass that is vertical and that do come out of the anchor pit cover...be on the look out before your mattress/wood panel goes rotten.
Since that temporarely fixing (should I say permant!!) no water or moisture has showed up again and we've had had good downpour since then.

The only thing that I would have done differently if I had had access to other material is probably use some thick plastic (some Polly or other) instead of the garbage bag but since it's out of the environment's wear & tear....I don't see why it would fall apart.

[Momentum M]

Just to point out that the 3rd picture...it's the front panel upside down so you can see the discoloration of the wood...at the mattress level

[Ron Hill]

Serge : As I pointed out in my Mainsheet windlass article last November (Nov 2007), I recommended that when the teak Vberth plywood is removed -- take some varnish and seal the back side and the cut edges.  That will insure that any moisture will not delaminate that panel. 
If you had done that and you still have not found that windlass leak, you could run a light bead of clear caulk around the teak panel to the hull.  Then if the leak persisted, at least it wouldn't get to the mattress. 
A thought.