Anchor Pulpit rebuilds/core trouble foreward (and fixes)

Karl,
You make a good point. That may help me make the decision on cutting from below or above. Lord knows I don't relish the upside down fiberglassing job. One of the alternatives I'm considering is to cut an inspection hole thru the top deck glass, about 6" x 6" around the hawse hole. And, minor decay there is really not a structural issue. It's the bolt hole areas that concern me most. Fortunately, the structual bolting is spread out well over a fairly large area.

I will be drilling, poking, and prodding around all 12 main bolt holes (6 windlass, 4 roller mount, and 2 pulpit) very carefully before I finalize my repair strategy. If it's punky, it will get torn open. If it's solid, I'll just repair the hawse hole area.

I will say this: The Friday after Thanksgiving, while fishing single handed, I got my anchor (all chain rode) hung up on an old trawl net that had apparently fouled on the wreck I fish. Standing on the bow, working the windlass, I was able to actually pull the bow down toward the water, and I never noted any deflection of the deck.

Also, yesterday after removing the pulpit, my 300# buddy Bob (aka Large Polish Boy) who was helping me, did his best jig on the offending area of the deck, with no noticable movement of the area.

I'm going to check it carefully, but I'm not above accepting an occasional run of good luck.
Bob

... I will note though that my windless and pulpit didn't flex the deck when loaded, even with it being trashed as bad as it was.

I think that's mostly because the caprail takes so much of the load, given the "cantilever" way the pulit sits on it, and that rail is SOLID - no coring.

However, with the windlass off it was obvious that I had trouble. Believe it or not, the hawse-hole was not the really ugly area - the areas around the mounting bolt holes were on mine....

The seal around the roller holes was fine, but the core inside there, once the 5200 was dug out, was worthless. There was NO sealant aronud the windlass mount holes - that's how the water got in there in the first place.

Good luck - I decided to go in from the bottom mostly because I can work even if its going to rain out that way, although I am not looking forward to the relamination from underneath. Have my Tyvek suit and am going to take a scuba tank and reg in there with me so I don't gas myself when I do the deed though.....

Unfortunately, we picked up 4" of snow up here in CT today, so I guess I'll take just the kids skiing and forget about it for a week or so.

Bob,

43C 110 may be your hull number.

Hull number was my first thought also, but it's not.