Hi Mboaters, it took almost a year but the core failure (due to water intrusion) under the mast tabernacle and the domino effect of other projects is now complete. The whole history is on the picasa web site shows the latest https://picasaweb.google.com/110938325409185510143/M23?authkey=Gv1sRgCJqUgPz... I put the exterior handrails in yesterday on the cabin top to finish off the core replacement and related projects. The core repair led to remaking the compression post (none really existed) inside the cabin and putting new none skid on the cabin top (more to follow) which meant removing all the hardware and over drilling and filling all the holes so that water intrusion will never again make it to balsa core! I put cetol on the handrails in another experiment with teak finishing. And used boat life caulk on the starboard rail and polybutyl caulk on the port rail just to compare. I am not sure I have an opinion on preference but I do need to figure out how to clean off polybutyl more effectively. I am happy with the whole repair and looking forward to going back to rebuilding the interior on the port side where I removed a bunch of rotted slats to repair the hull to deck joint a couple seasons ago... It is a good thing that I like working on boats and M boats in particular :) Cheers Robbin M-23 in Deale MD