Great to hear from Rachel again. I remember her posts. Whoever bought her boat surely got a good one. I think every inch had been gone over and made perfect. My 1978 M17 has similar core pattern, except for the hatch cover, which is not cored. The core areas she described were very similar to mine. The only thing I have not pulled are the front stanchions. I too have pulled all the hardware and deck fittings off to fill the holes with epoxy and re-bed all the fittings. I left the deck side holes somewhat small, but the holes on the bottom sides were drilled out to about half an inch. Large enough to insert a Dremmell saw blade to evacuate more cored material between the deck and inside core areas. When filled with thickened epoxy, I figure the effect was the same as a compression fitting for each hole. The only major work I had to do was repair of the core for the chainplates. That whole area had to come out. The balsa core was replaced with a lamination of Marine plywood...then glassed back over. I only recently discovered even more leaks not related to deck fittings. (Labor Day raftup....it rained all night)! Leaking deck plate, electrical connection for the masthead light, a new window (!!!) and the old water tank vent fitting. Moral to that story is, if you punch a hole in the boat, it can leak....so keep the holes to a minimum! Howard PS: Rachel....if you get tired and want someone to spell you on the Westy....give a yell. I'll sail and you can work on my leaks! On 9/16/03 4:31 PM, "Smith, Tom" <Tom.Smith@itron.com> wrote:
Thanks for the great information Rachel. Does anyone know if what Rachel reports applies to the older M17s with the original deck mold? I could be wrong, but I don't think there is as much balsa-core in the earlier models... t
Tom Smith & Jane Van Winkle Sandpoint, Idaho M15-345, Chukar
_______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats