Bow Rail Removal

[DownEast2]

I am buying a 2001 28' TE soon I hope. It has a broken fitting at the base of the bow rail that attaches to the fiberglass. My question is I would like to remove the rail so I can bring it to a welder and have the fitting welded, are the flanges screwed or bolted to the deck surface? If they are bolted I don't see any way to get to the underside to put a wrench on the bolts. At the very least I would like to remove the one broken flange to get it off the fiberglass surface to weld it in place.
Any suggestions would be helpful, thanks

[GSSeattle]

They are through-bolted. For the rail stanchions further aft (first two or three), you can access them from the access panel under the helm, or by removing the panels over the quarter berth. The ones by the bow pulpit can be accessed through the anchor locker. The other front ones, I haven't figured out a way to access short of removing the entire headliner. I think there were some threads on this topic if you search the Tournament Express forum.

[Nancy]

You don't have to remove the headliner to access the stanchions in the cabin. You just have to locate them by pressing firmly on the headliner. Then you can make a small cut in the headliner for access, and cover later with material of your choice. Our repair guy used starboard, and we're very satisfied.

In the first photo below, the blue tape marks the spot in the microwave cabinet.

stanchion 3-galley cabinet-1200.jpg

stanchion backing pl cover-10.03.20-1200.jpg

[DownEast2]

Thank you for your replies, that will be one of the winter projects assuming the boat purchase actually goes through. I'm hopeful that my next sea trial will go off without a hitch.