Hunter 28.5 stanchions

[thetone]

The stantions on my 28.5 are damaged. I need to get them off but the bolts wont turn. I am thinking of drilling the heads off. Does anyone have any experiance with this job?

 

[Dan D]

I had three stanchions on my 28 that had been bent by a demasting before I bought the boat. I was able to strong-arm two of the bolts. The third one required the drill. If you're carefull you can drill the head off without messin' up the threads inside the stanchion- good luck

 

[Steve Dion]

Are yours the ones that bolt thru the toe rail and are mounted in a extrusion. If this is the case, I dont see why it would hurt anything. I would think if you used a large enough breaker bar on a socket wrench they may break off anyway.

Do you have a source for new ones yet?

 

[navigator97]

Are the heads Philips Head or are they Hex Head bolts? I had Philips Head bolts on my stations and the would not turn with a Philips Screwdriver alone. I put downward pressure on the Philips Screwdriver and applied a Pliers to the Shank of the screw driver down close to the end. That caused it to finally move and I could then unscrew them. I brought the stanchions to a local metal working shop and they straightened out all of them ( I had one "good" stanchion to use as a model with it's slight natural bend). They also did some grinding and SS welding in one that had torn when it bent. The then re-ground that and buffed it. I cant tel the difference from that that one and the undamaged one..