Thanks Mark, I did remove the screws down at the bottom of the sheer and seal them with boat life polysulfied last fall. They kept on leaking over the winter so either I did not find the right screws (very possible) or something else is leaking. And I sealed the screws with water dripping off of them so it was a good guess! I do not disagree that it seems very difficult for the joint itself to leak if we consider the joint separately from the screws. The water would need to travel uphill and water tends not to do that! I am a big fan of good enough so I will definitely consider not prying the joint apart if it seems to be reluctant to doing that. It seems that the only way to do that would be from the inside which really does not give you much to work with as it is in a really inconvenient place to work on up there. But it is also the case that if it does not take too much effort it would not hurt to seal the whole joint as you cannot really clean it out without getting it apart. With the box joint on the M-23 it looks like the old mastic or what ever Jerry and crew used in '78 comes out pretty easily with a putty knife on the outside and all I have to do is clean the layers of caulky goo from the inside that previous owners smeared on in a vain attempt to stop leaks and clean that area off. I do have the toe rail half off as of Saturday night. I will do that half and then put it back. Thanks for the advice! I appreciate all the help I get. I do not work well as a lone contractor, I find that teams are invaluable so I really do appreciate all the advice and help I get on this forum! Thanks! Robbin On 4/8/2013 12:17 AM, edarts93@earthlink.net wrote:

Robbin, The hull to deck joint on the M23 is different from the M17. The deck turns down and the hull comes up inside the lip of the deck. The machine screws go from the outside of the toe rail, through the deck and hull and into the cabin. When you first brought up this project I commented that you probably only needed to find the leaking machine screws, remove and reseal them and your leak(s) will be stopped. I still believe that to be the case. I don't see any way the M23 joint could leak except where the machine screws penetrate the hull (water has to go up between the deck lip and over the hull to get inside). I took the port toerail completely off of my M23 cleaned it up, rebedded and re-installed. I won't do it that way again. If it ever starts to leak again I'll just look to see which screw is the leaker and reseal it. I think removing the toerail is completely unnecessary, but then my thoughts are only worth a penney! If you decide to proceed with the removal, I would either take the entire toerail off or do 1/2 at a time starting from the stern. I contemplated the 1/2 at a time procedure and decided against it when I did mine. The joint won't come apart on you (at least mine didn't) it is thoroughly bonded together. That's my 2 cents and worth every bit of it! Your results may vary. :) Good luck with your project. Mark Dvorscak M23 Faith M15 (awaiting paint job and new name) and former M17 owner