I have asked myself for years. I have the same style base and it fills up with water causing the it to rust. SS or not, it rusts over time. A bronze base would be different but mine are SS. My life lines pass through the stanchions with sleeve inserts but water still seeps in, collects in the bottom and starts to rust. The rusty water and rust collects at the upper lip of the base and looks like hell but, more importantly, is degrading the base. I have drilled weep holes in the base of about half of my units but a small amount of water still collects. On the last remount of a base I took a rubber cork and shoved it all the way up the stanchion right up to the lower lifeline cable in an attempt to limit the amount of water seeping down to the base. This seems to be working and I plan on doing the same to them all as time goes on. "As time goes on", that is the question. How long will a synthetic rubber cork last? As for now and the year past, I have eliminated all of the rusting at that particular base.