As a last project before we left the boat yesterday we decided to replace the cowls on the dorade boxes. Angela who we bought the boat from had already bought a couple nicro plastic cowls.. They were the exact same cowl as was originally installed on Valkyr so all the holes perfectly matched for the mounting screws. We thought it would take a few minutes to do this. Two hours later we actually finished. The screws holding the cowls on were all bronze with a nut on the opposite side. So we ended up taking the entire top lid off the dorage box to get to the underside. I'm very glad we did. There was really nasty stuff in the dorage boxes. Mud dobbers had been living in one years ago and left behind about a two cups of dirt that was holding moisture. The other dorade box was a cockroach motel. Shop vac to the rescue.. it sucks dirt and cockroaches equally well.

Also as you can see in the above images the wood in the cross pieces the box is attached to on deck is starting to rot out. 

The design of the current opening through the deck leaves something to be desired. It is a flanged piece of pipe that is screwed to the underside of the deck and comes up through a hole cut through the deck. It only extends about an inch above deck level. It also doesn't have any way of sealing it closed. Under most conditions it is probably adequate but if the boat ever took solid green water over that area it would be posible for it to work its way through the dorade box and into the boat. My second issue is the hole cut through the deck. I need to pull the pipe out of the hold so I can get to the core. I'm not sure when they cut the hole that they sealed the core. It is open from on deck as the hole for the pipe is about 1/4 inch larger all around than the pipe with flange any water or moisture that gets in there will drain into the the core if it is open.

So we got the cowls replaced but found some other areas that needed to be addressed in the near future.

To fix or change.. Longer pipe through deck and one that can be sealed water tight. Fix rotted sections of boxes. Check core of deck. Seal pipe in better. Varnish boxes.