reseating deck fixtures

[kerry]

I am about to start reseating all the fittings on the deck of my 34 and will also be repairing where old fittings have been. If the material under the fitting it rotten i was considering Git Rot or a similar product, to reseat a silcon sealer. Any sugestions will be welcome.Kerry

[Ron222]

Last winter, my 1986 A34, Paumanok, went through a major overhaul and rebedding of all deck fittings and rails was a high priority. Due to very poor maintenance by previous owners most handrails were leaking, loose and a mess. For the aft hand rails, you need to find the bolts and nuts under the deck to re-secure. They are a pain to find and you have to hunt within a very narrow space behind and above the trim in the aft head. On the starboard side under the bunk and squeeze to the side and look up. You will need very long socket extenders to reach the nuts. These bolts are drilled through a piece of wood to serve as a backing plate. I found these pieces of wood can be partially rotten which meant figuring a way to dig out and fiberglass the rotten areas or add a new piece of wood. The forward stanchions were a bigger problem. Here the balsa deck was rotten or soft in a few areas. The boatyard and I did two things (1)drilled a few hundred holes around the soft wood (see attached) and filled the holes with CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Solvent). I bought the CPES from The Rot Doctor, Inc in Seattle Wa. This product works better than Git-Rot because it takes a few weeks to evaporate and uniformly penetrates into the wood as it sets. It hardens to an epoxy resin but is not too brittle. It also allows lots more time to inject into the holes and into the wood. I highly recommend CPES for any soft balsa problems. One area of my deck was so bad it had to be cut out and new balsa installed. The area (about 3x3) was saturated with water. The month long and hard rebedding work was tested many times this summer and all decks fittings, stanchions and cracks did not leak a drop of water, so far. All deck fittings were rebed with high grade marine silicone. The boatyard convinced me that silicone lasts for years and is so much easier to redo when the need arises.

Hope this helps. Good luck on a big project if you too have soft balsa.
Ron

[kerry]

Hi Ron, Many thanks for the great advice, i will follow your suggestions and keep my fingers crossed i don't find too much damage! Kerry