My case wasn't a friend of a friend, it was my friends and the repair work was done in my garage. And it wasn't 17 years old at the time - that was back in 2011. The troubling part, as I added above, is they still use the same design today.
Good design or bad, the more people we can let know about the need for regular resealing the better.
If this helps even one Winnie owner who did not know then this whole thread was worth everyones time.
Like I said before, I'm not here to bash, I'm here to inform. And my info is first hand, real world stuff, complete with pictures :B Not just something from your friends cousins uncle that you saw on the internet.