REVIEW of BEDDING BUTYL TAPE for STANCHIONS

[chambao]

Based on the excellent illustrations & directions given by Sail Maine link, I
bought a roll of grey butyl tape from the local autobody store ($11) and carefully followed SM's guide. It worked perfectly. I bedded two SS stanchions that were leaking into the cabin. I tested them by aiming a garden hose at them for 5 mins. No leaks. The following week it rained
heavily and no leaks ! The secret is to follow MS's guide to the letter.
Clean up was a breeze. I own a Catalina 27. Check out the link:
http://forums.sbo.sailboatowners.com/showthread.php?p=705346

 

[Stu Jackson]

Did you miss the part about buying it from Maine Sail?

Yes, great stuff and a great tutorial.

 

[Faris]

Yup. I started rebedding all of my deck hardware a while back using a 3M sealant (no longer recall which one). After doing two pieces of hardware, and a fair amount of deck damage removing old adhesive, I vowed to find a better way. Fortunately, butyl tape has been around and in use a long time, so it wasn't hard to discover.

I use it on all of my deck hardware now. I actually enjoy the job of rebedding, as opposed to dreading it. One of the greatest benefits of using BT is that every year, if I want, I can remove a piece of hardware, check the substrate, reseal and refasten. The whole job takes 20-30 minutes, and I tend to do those sorts of jobs underway when the wind is flat.

Nowadays, I don't have any deck hardware that hasn't been recently rebedded. (Well, that's not true at all. I just got a new boat and haven't rebedded any hardware yet on that boat.)