I have had one through
hull break off in my hand, and I simply drove the attached bung into the hole to
plug the leak.
During my
circumnavigation, I carried a big fist size gob of pliable wax that plumbers use to seal toilets at the base of the
toilet. It's sticky stuff that doesn't stick to fingers, but will stick to the hull when wet. I never used it, but I figured it might come in handy if I
lost a prop shaft with a gaping hole in the stern tube. I could cram the waxy stuff into the hole.
I carried underwater patching compound - also never used it.
One of the reasons I selected a
catamaran to sail around the world was because of
collision bulkheads. Mine have been tested. When my boat was delivered to the
USA, the
delivery captain knocked a six inch hole in the bow from striking something in the
water. The
collision bulkhead limited the ingress of
water to only a few liters because the bulkhead is about eight inches back from the bow.
I also have five "watertight compartments" in each hull to isolate a leak from flooding that hull.
Patching a leaking hull in anything but calm conditions has a low probability of success. Most of the time, big
leaks quickly overwhelm you before you can do anything about them.
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