Stanchions
Denise - Charlie's post is right on. The stanchions are subject to a lot of loading and have to be anchored securely, as in thru-bolting rather than just being fastened with screws. You said the ends of the bolts were hidden behind some mouldy carpet, so water is definitely getting in, and it is probably causing rot in the core material. I would suggest that, in addition to the epoxy treatment that Charlie recommends, you look at the way the inside ends of the stanchion bolts are backed up. Just having flat washeres here isn't strong enough; you should have a plate of 1/4" thick aluminum or piece of 3/4" hardwood or marine ply that is significantly larger than the base plate of the stanchion. On my boat, the plywood that backed up the stanchion was getting black as water was starting to rot it: I replaced with marine ply saturated with epoxy, and bonded to the underside of the deck with a thickened epoxy mixture, having previously drilled a 3/4" hole thru the deck for each stanchion bolt. Once the backing had bonded, I filled the holes in the deck with thickened epoxy, let cure, then drilled the 1/4" holes required for the stanchion bolts. The stanchions & bolts were sealed with 3M5200 and replaced, with a stainless fender washer ( an oversize flat washer ) and a nut with a nylon insert in it. The nylon acts as a lock so the nut won't loosen in time.All this is MUCH easier to say than to do, as access to the stanchion bolts runs from bad to near impossible ( so far, I've only done the ones flanking the cockpit, where there's a boarding gate in the lifelines ) but it's important to get them all done, both from the perspective of safety and to prevent rot in the boat. In some places and some boats parts of the cabin liner will have to be cut to provide access, which presents another repair problem, and most of the work has to be done overhead. Not nice but necessary.