So, am I crazy or is there an easier way....

[Frank Langer]

There is no record in the detailed maintenance log for our boat that the previous owner of our 1984 E30+ ever rebedded the deck fittings--stanchions, pulpit, cleats, spinnaker pole holder, winches, deck organizers, hatches, etc. My check of these from inside the boat (inside the headliner, lockers, etc.) showed that two of the stanchion backing plates have a bit of rust on them, one of the four pulpit backing plates looks suspicious, but the rest look clean with no sign of any leakage or problem of any kind.

I am considering re-bedding everything, but this involves a significant amount of work, enlisting my wife for an extra set of hands when needed, and the risk that I inadvertently create a leak where there is none now, even though I tend to work carefully.

I am wondering about an alternative. I'm considering drilling a small hole from the underside of the deck near each fitting through the inside layer of fibreglass into the core, but not through to the deck, to check if there is any sign of moisture in the core. If it is dry, I'm thinking there would be no need to rebed that fitting, and the small hole from the underside would enable me to monitor and detect any sign of future leakage before much damage occured to the core of the deck. Of course if I find any moisture, I would rebed that fitting, and I plan on doing the fittings that show some residual rust.

Although my wife thinks I'm crazy for considering drilling holes in the boat (and maybe she's right!), the advantage of this approach is that I might only need to rebed a small number of fittings, and monitor the others until there is some indication that they are leaking. The disadvantage of this strategy is that I would be creating lots of small holes into the underside of the deck--I'm guessing there are at least two dozen fittings. And maybe by the time I detect a leak through the small holes, some damage might already have occured.

I would appreciate any thoughts on these options, and even better, any other strategies that have worked for you.

Thanks,
Frank

 

[Greg Ross]

Go ahead, rebed!

Frank,
If you have the time and ambition, just go ahead and rebed everything you have ready access to.
I visited Layla II on Saturday to take my Brother (also a Sailor) in to see the progress on paintwork.
Several of the cabinside port lights have been removed since I was there last week, his description of their removal was that `they literally fell out once the fasteners were removed`
The bedding material used in that era does not have the properties of the materials available to us today, it`s on the verge of turning to paste or dust!
My two cents.

 

[treilley]

Rebedding deck fittings should be considered preventative maintanance, especially on our Ericsons. That means do it befoer it starts to leak. It really is not that hard and once you do a couple you will get very good at it.

The proper way is to remove the fitting from the deck. Overdrill the holes but only down to the inside skin. Leave that the original hole size. Remove as much wet core as possible and then fill with thickened epoxy. Next, re-drill the original hole though. Using a suitable bit, countersink the hole. Rebed the fitting with butyl tape. This procedure will ensure that any future leaks go through to the cabin and not into the core.

All the details are here

I did 8 stanchions, the guard in front of the mast and all the turning blocks in a weekend.

Ideally, if you have wet core, you want to drill them out and let sit and dry more during your normal layup period and then finishing the job before launching.