Rebedding bow pulpit on my 28 Oday

[fourwhitesocks]

Looking for some guidance, I need to rebed the bow pulpit on my 1983 28 Oday. The aft stanchions seem to be the source of leaks, the forward ones seem good still. Does the whole pulpit need to come off? Are there wires running up through there? Any info would be helpful!

 

[jibes138]

If you have leaks then the core around the base is probably rotted out since O'Day didn't seal the core with epoxy around holes or make the deck solid FRP in those areas.
If you have a pulpit mounted navigation light then yes you will have wires but that should not be a problem to cut them and resplice them when you put it back together. Just get a couple of butt splices and a good crimping tool and some adhesive lined shrink tubing.
If the core is rotted you will have to decide how extensive a repair, whether just around the mounting or replacing all rotted core in the deck. Most old boats have this problem to some extent so not to get too concerned. Some folks have cut out the skin inside the v-berth and repaired it from inside but most seem to agree that repair from outside is a lot easier. Do a search on core repair and you'll get lots of info and pictures.

 

[Pafb]

Timely post (at least for me) as I need to take off and rebed the bow pulpit on my oday 28 as well. My conundrum isn't the strength of the deck (or how to repair it if required) but how to reach the nut on the bolts. At least one of the nuts on each of the aft most stanchions is obstructed by the anchor locker. On your 28 do you have relatively clear access to all the bolts? If not, how did you gain access to them?

 

[fourwhitesocks]

I can get to my aft nuts and bolts from inside the vee birth. The forward ones I have access to also from inside the vee birth but way further up inside; like up past the little wall at the forward most point inside. They are next to the anchor locker, I can kinda get in there maybe if I squish in as far as I can but it looks incredibly difficult; esp because I get claustrophobic...so I'm not sure about how to get those either. Maybe with an extension and tranquilizers lol; it looks challenging for sure. I wonder if that little wall is removable, then it might not be difficult at all but I have no idea about that either. It doesn't seem structural - that little wall I mean so maybe it can come out? I wish I would have seen this earlier I could have taken pictures of those bolts, but I just left my boat. I'm also worried about the extensiveness of the rot in there. What year is your 28? I would have thought that area would be the same as mine...?

 

[Mickstr]

On my 272 that little bulkhead was secured with a few screws. Getting that out was easy. Sckooching up to unscrew the 3 nuts on each forward stanchion base wasn't fun, but was certainly doable. Once you get that bulkhead out you should see the wires for the nav lights coming out the middle of the stanchion base. Mine had plenty of slack. I just cut them and re-connected later with the butt splice..

 

[fourwhitesocks]

That would be great if that bulkhead comes out that easy then I can get to all of the stanchion nuts and bolts on the pulpit fairly easily...