I just recently purchased #291, and have a few questions about how to fix the stars (cracks) in the ceiling of the cabin. V berth is in great condition, but right above sink and port bech I have several cracks, small but still noticable. Can i just fill these, or is this indicitive of water damage, it doesn't feel to soft, so I don't know. Any help?

Also, is there a good product to remove little mold spots from caulking or do i need to pull and re-apply?

Thanks,
Jay

Be concerned about water damage. It's amazing how much water can be in there before anything feels soft or delaminates. I am in the process of recoring above the icebox. The leaking culprit was the rope clutch. The cracks may be caused by feeze thaw. The rails could be trouble too. Try taking hardware off and examining the condition of the core.

I agree. This is likely because of water damage. On my boat (#295) I've been slowly working on this problem - re-bedding all hardware up there and the companionway hatch tracks. So far I'm only working on the sources of moisture. Soon I'll have to drill holes inside to let the existing moisture out, then fill and paint. Look fo any corresponding cracks on the outside. Particularly running along the outside of the hatch (parallel to the tracks).

Last year I removed every piece of hardware from the deck of #367. Roughly 50-60% of the holes were wet. There was absolutely no indication either above or below that this was the case - no stars or cracks. I drilled each out with an oversized bit, dug out as much wet core as I could and let the rest dry out, then filled the holes and voids with West System epoxy, and finally redrilled the holes and bedded the hardware with polysulfate. By filling with epoxy, you seal the core so even if your bedding compound fails, the core is protected from water damage. Good luck!

Just finished a complete epoxy fill of all deck holes and a repaint. Looks very nice.
I had to recore several spots. Take note that the seahood is screwed into a material that is water permiable. I had to recore around much of the seahood frame. One section was isolated from all other sources. Seems the material has wood dust in it. I overdrilled and epoxy filled the scew holes for the seahood as well as all the rest.

The other three hatches are screwed into solid glass, but note that if you turn them end for end and remount you might drill into balsa. The, of course, you'll ahve to fill those too.

Note that there was no visible evidence that there was damage in the core around the seahood. I started drilling test holes once it seemed it might be a source of leaks.

[This message has been edited by Mark (edited 07-27-2002).]