P303 Deck under stanchions cored or not ?

[SVEnchantress]

I need to re-bed the stanchions, bow pulpit and stern rail on our P303. I'm trying to determine how much time off I need to do this start to finish.

Question is, on the P303 is the deck cored where the stanchions are mounted (almost out to the deck flange) ? I would assume yes, but it'd be nice to know for sure...

Any help/advice appreciated. FYI, I plan on using the butyl tape bedding method for the re-bedding.

Thanks!

--Charles

 

[RichH]

YUP, all Pearsons of that era had cored decks.

If you dont want to break the THIN upper section of the fiberglass on a Pearson with a cored deck, 'be sure' to use a rubber gasket under that stanchion base to allow for the stanchion to 'move' a little when overstressed. If no gasket you'll soon get 'radial cracks' emanating from all the stanchion base bore holes ... then you get a 'soggy mess' in that core.
If the core is rotted, and you tighten down on those stanchion bolts, youll crack that thin top fiberglass deck layer.

Best is to 'worm out' the core in the stanchion area and 'carefully' fill with solid fiberglass + epoxy 'mush'. If you go this route, use SLOW cure epoxy, so you dont get a 'foam out' ... which can break the surface of the deck. Have 'ice packs' ready and waiting to cool down a too hot epoxy/mush mix.

hope this helps.

;-)

 

[SVEnchantress]

That's what I was suspecting. I have new gaskets, but I'm a little dubious in using them as it seems like just asking for a leak. I was honestly counting on the butly to give the necessary flex.

 

[jdeaston]

Using Butyl to Re-bed

I've been slowly re-bedding my 303 stantions and have had good luck with Mainesail's butyl approach (let me know if you need a link to his full instructions) - just make sure you get as much of the core out of each bolt hole as possible and that you get rid of any air pockets when you fill each one with the epoxy/filler. As mentioned above, you might want to use the slower curing epoxy hardener, as I find 20 mins to be pushing it to do Mainesail's full process.

Also make sure you have appropriate backing plates below - I had to replace some that were just thin metal with Starboard (Polyethylene). No problem with crazing yet! (fingers crossed)

Good luck.

Jeff

That's what I was suspecting. I have new gaskets, but I'm a little dubious in using them as it seems like just asking for a leak. I was honestly counting on the butly to give the necessary flex.

 

[SVEnchantress]

Re: Using Butyl to Re-bed

Just as a follow up to this thread, I did complete the process using the butyl tape method and so far so good.

Also, RigRite has stainless steel backing plates that fit our (P303) stanchions, as well as the proper replacement stanchion bases (I had to replace one of them).