I just bought #139 and have some soft spots throughout my deck. I need to dry these out before I repaint the deck. I had good luck on my J/24 by drilling holes and letting them dry out. The boat is in outside storage.

I am looking for any advice or opinions before I dig into this project this winter.

Wet balsa is not soft, wrotten balsa is! No point in drying it out. You have little choice but to open up the deck and get rid of it all. Not a big deal once you're over the emotional experience of sticking an angle grinder into your boat. At least you know it is fixed properly when done.

Thanks, any good sites, articles, etc to use as a good reference?

I'll try and post some of the photos I took of my deck work. What you want to do is tap with a hammer find the soft spot. use a circular saw set to 1/2 inch or less. cut out a square. Chances are once it's open you will have to make the opening larger. Take a chisel and knock out the core. It's usually not hard to get out. After it's cleanout, mix up epoxy and micro spheres to a peanut butter consistency, spread it in the opening, wet 3/4 balsa with epoxy and place on top. Let it cure then fill in the gaps with more thickened epoxy. sand, sand then sand some more.

this is the most comprehensive information on recoring and rebedding hardware I have come a across on the web. http://www.epoxyworks.com/19/Replacing_Core.html

Check out all the links on the bottom of my blog

BTW, Brett, my wife is from Attica. Just down the road from you on SR 4.

Awesome, thanks everyone!

Attica huh? I just got a speeding ticket there last weekend! She doesn't know anyone at the City Court does she??!

She might actually. One horse town.

Any advice on how best to fill in old instruments holes on the bulkhead? Do you have a link on your blog?