Loss of water/pressure from tank

[Jim&Deb]

Greetings to all! My wife and I purchased a well loved and well maintained creampuff of a 2004 Catalina 350 from Greig and Linda Mitchell. She is hull number 330 and was lying in Cambridge Maryland. After much preparation and learning as much as we could about the boat, we set sail on Thursday morning, June 14th. We headed out of the Choptank river and crossed the Chesapeake bay to Solomon's Island. We had flushed the water tanks and filled them previously so we were surprised by the water pressure pump coming on frequently and the faucets sputtering upon our arrival at Zanhisers' marina. We filled the tank and went about our business as usual. The next morning, we left early for Crisfield Maryland to stay ahead of approaching rough weather. We hit 18 knot wind, strong swells and heavy waves just off the Patuxent river and we saw a few boaters turn around to re-enter the Patuxent. The Bella Rosa radioed us to ask if she could follow us to Crisfield, due to the conditions. We replied in the affirmative and pressed on. As we continued, things smoothed out, giving us a good cruise while motoring with the wind just off our bow. Upon our arrival at Chrisfield, we entered the well protected marina, fueled up and eased into a slip. The ladies aboard discovered that, once again, we had very little water pressure and sputtering faucets. We checked everywhere for water leaks and saw no signs to indicate a problem. We decided to check everywhere on the boat and my wife opened the aft starboard compartment and she saw rapidly dripping water from a washdown fitting. It was running out of the walk-through section of the transom. Our friend who was with us, along with his wife, removed the knobs from the hot and cold faucets under the helm seat, and sure enough, water was flowing from both valve bodies. We shut off the water pressure breaker and opened the tank fill cap. The retaining nuts/rings which hold the valves in place were loose. Ronnie removed them and checked for other issues that might cause leaking. The rings appear to be made from some form of nylon and were easily removed. The area underneath each ring was cleaned and the rings were reinstalled and snugged down. We once again filled the tank and turned on the water pressure breaker. No more leaking or loss of pressure! We hope this will help others in a similar situation.