cockpit floor hardware - interesting discovery

BobCT · Post by **BobCT** » Thu May 26, 2011 9:22 pm

My cockpit floor was looking pretty bad so I painted it with Interlux Interdeck over the past few days. 2.5 qts for two coats on a mid cabin FYI.

Anyway, I removed all of the deck hardware in the process. The threaded plates that attach the rear benches, corner seating, wetbar, etc., are a major source of water into the deck core if you don't have the hold down bolts installed.

I don't keep the rear benches bolted down because I wind up moving them around too much. If they're not installed, any/all water goes right into the center hole and right into the core. No wonder my rear center hatch is like a marshmallow. That's an easy fix. The other ones in the deck were wet around the holes but still solid. I re-bed everything and filled the center holes with clear caulk for now.

This is a bad design, they really shouldn't thread all the way through.

Anyway, check these out and re-bed them in the process, it's an easy thing to miss.

Bob

aaronbocknek · Post by **aaronbocknek** » Mon May 30, 2011 6:59 am

trojan was famous for doing stuff like this. on the "F" series cruisers, you should see what they did NOT do when they stuck on the anchor chain pipe. drilled a huge hole in the deck, mounted the anchor chain plate and cover but left the core exposed. no epoxy, no nothing. for the anchor mounting brackets on the deck, they just drilled holes, installed the hardware and i seriously doubt that the screws were bedded in anything. those areas are where the majority of the forward deck rot starts. just seriously stupid things sometimes. then again, i do not think that the company thought these boats would be around as long as they have been. they built for the short term and not the long term i think.

RWS · Post by **RWS** » Wed Jun 01, 2011 8:21 pm

I had a similar issue with mine however I believe the center threaded holes are SUPPOSED to be open all the way through to the bilge.

The problem is with the three (I think) screws that fasten the fitting to the deck and the bedding or lack thereof

I did rebed mine several years ago,

RWS

BobCT · Post by **BobCT** » Thu Jun 02, 2011 11:22 am

that makes sense, just let it drain into the bilge. For whatever reason on the mid cabin, there's no weep hole so all the water goes right into the deck core.

I'm sure the screw holes leaked as well so I re-bed those. If you always have everything bolted down you're probably ok and you just need to re-bed the screws.

It was dumb luck finding this and only because I painted the cockpit floor.