hull vents?

[bridgeman]

I was going out Lake Erie on Saturday morning running north-east into a following sea that was about 4' and typical of Erie very steep and tight together. Numerous times on the run out I noticed water splashing through the vents and on to the floor, it didn't look like it was very much so it didn't really bother me. After about 3 hours of trolling I noticed that the stern looked like it was riding too low and when I pulled the hatch in front of the splash well it was full of water, bilged about half of it out until the pump got filled with sand that must have been up front and washed back during this ordeal. I made it back to the ramp and put it on the trailer and after about 30-45 minutes had it drained out no damage to the boat but it took about 20 years off my life. Somethings not adding up here to me, is there that much room up front between the stringers, I was amazed at how much water came out of it. Is it possible to take on that much water through the vents? As the water was draining I checked all of the through hull fittings and they weren't leaking any ideas on where else to look? Not really eager to get her back out on the lake again until I'm sure this is resolved, it took a good bit of gruntin for the old merc's to get up on plane..really scared the chit otta me