Phil....good thought, that may (hopefully) be the case...going to reinforce all anyway beneath, no way of knowing if anything is sandwiched in there (other than plywood)...
They're machine screws w/nuts below...could be threaded thru embedded plates, but I doubt it, and won't rely on that possibility...If they are (wood) screws they aren't going into embedded plates. They would/should be machine screws.
I'm tempted to back out some of my hardware screws and add some drops of lubricant. I've already fought 2 track end stop screws that were frozen to the plates.
That seems like a sensible construction practice, but I don't think the early C-22's did that. I up-sized from 6" to 8" cleats on both bow and stern (on my 1981). I re-drilled one hole completely (wider hole spacing on the larger cleats), and dremeled out the core, filled with epoxy, etc. It's been a few years, but I'm pretty sure I'd have noticed aluminum in the glass if it were there.
The underside of my plywood looks about the same as this picture. Does anyone think anything needs to be done to seal the cracks, or clean that up? Looks there also might be some traces of black mold as well. I've just left it, on the theory that life is too short - but I'm sure there's some recommended course of action. Anyone else do anything for it?
Mine looked that bad, or maybe worse. It was obvious in my case that the cracking was caused by the plywood core swelling when it absorbed water. And my pulpit moved, indicating flex in the deck. See Sailing and restoring #9874. Hope yours doesn’t need that surgery.
