Andrei, If rot is not readily apparent you can always pull a piece of deck hardware and check to see how it was mounted. Any hardware I've installed on my deck is mounted through holes that I have lined with a sleeve of either plastic or metal tubing (I prefer plastic). I drill the hole, swab the sides with epoxy then slip the plastic sleeve into the hole I also slightly chamfer the gelcoat on the deck to make sure there is a small moat that the epoxy can fill around the tubing hole liner. I find this process to be a pretty good counter measure for keeping moisture out of the balsa core. After removing a fairlead or clamcleat, and you find the core is soft or damp inside the mount hole, you may have a rot problem. Fair Winds Mark Escovedo M17 Flushdeck #103 "AMY" ----- Original Message ---- From: Andrei Caldararu <andreic@math.wisc.edu> To: For and about Montgomery Sailboats <montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Thursday, June 5, 2008 11:19:11 AM Subject: Re: M_Boats: How to tell core rot Will the leaks also be revealed in stains on the headliner/cabin interior? The boat I am interested in has supposedly been very well taken care of by its previous owner, and then stored under a good quality tarp that covers it all. But it was outside in Utah through two winters (=snow). A. _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats