Cathy, Welcome to the 'fleet' - it appears as though you are a 'hands on' kind of person - Good for you! I have a 1980 M-17 - that has a material at the interior liner/deck joint that appears to a cab-o-sil type filler at the seam - cracked and missing at various locations - Jerry M. once told me if I was a "real" boat guy I would tape the joint and be forever confident in its integrity. Sounded like too much work for me. Jerry will be able to help when he reads the post. As to your v-berth cracking and blistering issue - If the cracks are large and beyond the gelcoat they should be repaired with fiberglass - if they are just 'crazing and blisters you may consider sanding them smooth and coating with 2-3 coats of Interprotect 2000E - it comes in grey and white (barrier coat,) Stan S will hopefully chime in here as he is the man for coatings, repairs & modifications. I have used 2000E on my topsides and almost everywhere else(!) on a boat,car, etc. and had VERY good results. Stan may have an easier/less expensive/better application for this task. My own boat shows minor crazing at the horizontal berth deck and blisters from leaking pulpit fasteners - I will live with the v-berth as is for the time being. This being said - wait a couple of days and see if we can get the pro's to check in on the issue. Congratulations on finding one of the best small boats around! Keep up the good work - I believe you will find your boat a worthy endeavor. Have Fun, Go Sailing GO M-17t #316 "Tiny Purple Fishes" PS +1 on Connie's recommendation for the West Repair book - you may also sign up for the Epoxyworks newsletter for free. http://www.epoxyworks.com/ In a message dated 5/5/2013 6:02:08 A.M. US Mountain Standard Time, Csmithsquared@aol.com writes: Hello all! My name is Cathy from Atlanta and from these posts and the MSOG site, I'm one of the few east coast owners. I've been reading this forum and the one on the Montgomery site as well as Don Casey's books and Fix it and Sail to learn about my "new" boat. I'm the new owner of the 1977 M17 originally bought by Lionel Babb, and, unfortunately, I can't list my original hull identification number because she has a newly issued number. Perhaps someone knows Lionel or Jerry has records (I hope)... Anyway, Jo Marie (old name-not renamed yet) is in fairly good shape and I took her out twice (in January) before starting to work on rebedding the bow pulpit. This proved to be a little more labor intensive as the core around two of the stanchions was simply gone. Rotten and eaten by ants is my guess as the boat is from Baton Rouge. So while I started to work on that, intending to pace my renovations so I could continue to sail her, one thing led to another and I subsequently removed everything that bolts through, including the locker lids, forward hatch, and port lights. The three coats of interior paint were peeling so I decided this would be a great time to remove and repaint since all the bolts were removed. Not my most fun spring break, but I removed most of the paint and learned a lot about what not to do to the interior. Which brings up my questions. Where the cabin/deck top meet the interior insert there is an off-white colored substance. This originally extended about one half inch over the top of the dimpled interior side wall but had become brittle with age (and maybe paint) and I ended up chipping it off as I removed the paint. I have searched forums and Don Casey's book and can not find out what it is and if I should renew it with a similar product. It seemed plastic-like, but perhaps it was a bead of 4200...Does anyone have any idea what it might be? And with what I can replace it? Another problem is that once I removed the three layers of paint from the v-berth I discovered the gelcoat there is all cracked and blistered. I'm trying to decide what to do about that to restore it. Anybody ever had that? I'm considering covering it with a layer of plastic laminate (Formica) as the cracking is so extensive. If any of you have any ideas about restoring that I welcome your input. That's all for now and I won't be a "lurker" anymore! I look forward to a trip to Lake Havasu in a couple of years. Cathy M17 Jo Marie (for now)