I have a 1987 Pearson 33-2. In general, it is a very well designed vessel. I was looking last weekend (during 10 degree wind chill) at rebedding the bow and stern stanchions where there is some minor water intrusion. But in looking below to find the backing plates and nuts so the stanchions can be removed, there is a solid fiberglass liner that shows no easy way to remove or access the stanchion bases under the deck. I find it hard to believe that in a boat that is otherwise well thought out it would be necessary to cut holes into the liner to access the stanchion bases, so hoping there is someone out there who has previously accessed and rebedded Pearson 33-2 or similar stanchions and can shed light on whether the nuts are fixed below so rebedding can be accomplished from the deck, or if in fact the designer was dozing and the boat was built so that one does indeed need to cut holes into the headliner to access and rebed the fore and aft stanchions. Thanks in advance for sharing your experience and wisdom.
How to access stanchion bases for rebedding?
- Thread starter davidkahn53
- Start date
When it comes to details like bedding stanchions boatbuilders look for the fastest least expensive way to mount them. That means, they build the deck, mount the hardware and then either bond the deck to the headliner or put the headliner on the boat and then mount the deck. The short term effect is a quick efficient assembly of the deck and headliner, the long term effect is a lot of cursing, scraped knuckles, and cut headliners by future owners.
A couple of suggestions. Look for pivoting box end wrenches like these on Amazon or custom bend a wrench to fit. Finally, as you suggested, carefully trim the headliner to reach the nuts. Be creative about the trim piece to cover the holes.
And yes, there ought to be a law against this!
A couple of suggestions. Look for pivoting box end wrenches like these on Amazon or custom bend a wrench to fit. Finally, as you suggested, carefully trim the headliner to reach the nuts. Be creative about the trim piece to cover the holes.
And yes, there ought to be a law against this!
Just wait until one of your tanks needs replacing.
In general boats are designed to be easy to build, not fix.
Possible, but I wouldn't hold my breathe. It may be possible for the OP to stick his fingers up under the headliner to see if there are nuts holding the stanchions. Embedding a plate into the deck mold, drilling it out, and tapping it would add production costs. From a builder's point of view that money (mostly labor) would be better spent on significant structural parts of the boat, visible cosmetic parts, or the company backers' return on investment.
Pearsons, while one of the better built production boats, were still production boats built to be competitive in the market place.
The two mid ships stanchions are visible and accessible so when the weather warms up I’ll investigate how those are bolted in. I recall seeing a rectangular backing plate which is good, but didn’t examine to see if the plate was bonded to the liner and the nuts secured, or simply held by the nuts on the bolts. If the former I’m in luck and will credit the Pearson designers with wisdom and grace. By chance any other Pearson 33 or similar owners who know the answer to this query?
When I rebidded the stanchions on my C30 there were a couple of bolts with nuts that dropped into the gap between the hull and liner. I knew that there was no possible way to hold a nut in these locations so I epoxied bronze ferrules into the hull. Problem solved.
On my Old Pearson 36-2 the forward Stanchion bases were easily accessed in the bow not covered by the liner. The liner did not go all the way to the side of the hull as there were build in cubbies there. I find it hard to believe that there is no access to the bases, but my experience comes with the larger version..... do you have a picture of the forward v berth?
No pictures with me, and will do more in-depth looking and investigation when I'm next there. Pearson provided well thought out access points for wiring and other maintenance items, so still hoping that I just missed an easier access that would not involve cutting holes in the headliner.