Better check bedding of your deck fittings

[rgano]

The first item I discovered on this boat requiring some bedding (not re-bedding, because there was NONE!) was the large diameter bronze emergency bilge pump exhaust on the side of the boat. It was the source of a fair amount of water ingress as water rose up on the side at certain speeds.


Today, out of concern for water intrusion into the balsa core of the deck, I completed re-bedding every deck fitting on the boat except railing bases and cleats, which I could not lift. There were some small after -market fittings with NO bedding compound whatsoever, but there was bedding compound under all the original fittings, not all of it being completely effective judging by the traces of dirt I saw on the old bedding compound left behind after I lifted some of them.


The interesting thing about the bedding under the original fittings was that every fitting popped cleanly off of the bedding leaving the compound still quite firmly attached to the deck. I wonder if the Mainship people sprayed some sort of release chemical onto the metal fittings to facilitate removal. It has never been a practice I ever heard of or practiced myself.

 

[Symphony]

did you rebed the ports or hatches, Rich?

 

[rgano]

I did not need to rebed any port or hatch.

 

[meridian]

What did you use?

 

[Comodave]

They probably did not clean the bottom of the fittings before they installed them so the bedding compound did not stick to the fitting. You should clean the metal with acetone or similar to clean off oils, etc before bedding the fittings. Did you over drill and fill the screw holes with thickened epoxy before reinstalling the fittings? Thay way if the bedding fails your core will not wick up the water and rot the core.

 

[rgano]

I used 4200.