The mother of invention

Chewing on a problem yields a novel solution

- Dave Selby

The quest for the ultimate marine sealant is over. For just as Isaac Newton found gravity by being hit on the head by it, my discovery came about purely by accident. Archimedes had his eureka moment soaking in a bath, and that in a sense is how my revelation came upon me as I motored up the coast on a windless day three summers ago watching a steady trickle of water come through the plank seams I'd poorly caulked in the spring and into the after end of the cockpit of my 1953 Blackwater sloop.

As I gunned the throttle in an effort to keep pace with the larger boats on the cruise, Snipe of Maldon's stern was squatting down and submerging seams that would normally be above water. When I eased the throttle back the stern lifted and the trickle subsided to a dribble, but if I didn't get a hurry on I would miss the tide gate at the River Deben entrance and dinner at the Ferry Boat Inn.

As a practical demonstration of Archimedes' principles of floatation, buoyancy, volume, mass and displacement it was grimly fascinating. Nevertheless, it was when I decided to chew on it for a bit that I had my eureka moment.