Ted,
I am not remembering this project very well but I seem to recall on our 89 Contessa, the bottom of the door interior frame rotting some and that wood framing was involved. I seem to remember replacing some of the wood structure with new oak and using West Marine epoxy to seal the new pieces. After fixing it I did not have a problem. If you pull the inner wood paneling you might get a good idea of what is happening. It has been a lot of years since I worked on that door so the memories are fuzzy and I cannot tell if you have the same issues or something different to deal with as a root cause.
Later Ed