I had a similar problem. I took a paper towel and put as much as I could into the hole creating a wick. Then I placed a high cfm bilge fan right next to the paper towel and ran it for three months in the summer. It took a long time to remove the water but eventually it worked. I would not glass over it because if the water freezes then you could crack the bilge or do damage to the hull as water expands when frozen.

i suggest you have a look at my 2012 jun 2 post in the W28 forum titled "water in the keel"  its a bit ling winded, but i think i covered most of it. the boat is still drying out.

Amazing troubleshooting James.  I will look a lot closer at the bilge and maybe push a little air of my own into it to see if I have other areas with issues.  And to think, all we were originally doing was pulling the water tanks to inspect them.  I have yet to find a project on the Tyee that didn't involve or lead to several other unforeseen projects.  Well as they say it's the journey not the destination.  

  I spent some more time looking at the situation and decided to drill some exploratory holes into the ballast area. I drilled four holes in the side of the step aft of the mast support block. The first hole was at the level of the leak, that produced a small spurt then back to a slow dribble. The next was half way down which spurted about a cup or so of water. I tasted this and it was salty. Resisting the urge to run for my drysuit I drilled another at the base of the step. This gave me roughly a quart or more and some lead pellets until it slowed to a dribble again. A little air produced just a little more water. It is now just a very slow dribble and from the base of the step instead of higher up. The other holes are dry. We put a paper towel in the lower hole and a heater nearby. The heater seems to be able to dry the paper towel as fast as it gets damp. We are going to seal the holes and paint then reopen the lower one and put the paper towel back. We are going to dive the hull again as well to check it. I think the saltwater is from a previous leak that filled the bilge and was fixed. At least I am hoping.

I had a similar problem a few years back with my Westsail 43. We had removed the galley pulled the deck and both center line water tanks and the center line fuel tank. After chipping away and cleaning 40 years of worth of sludge and crud the bilges were bone dry and sparkly clean.

You can imagine how we started freaking out  when we started seeing water seeping up from right over the keel. I dove the hull over and over looking for were the water could be coming in from. Had heat lamps in there for almost two weeks trying to stop the slow leak.

I finally called Bud, and he explained about the plywood that was glassed in the bilges over the keel. Drilled and pulled a few plugs out using a whole saw and discovered that the plywood was soaked through and rotted. I was able to grind away all the glass around the plywood, pull it up in one piece, reclean and dry the bilges, and NO MORE LEAKS.

I reglassed a new piece of ply wood down and went back to the original projects.