Posted by gaprior@… (gaprior@…)
I have a F-25 that has a traveler that arcs over the cabin just in
front of the companion way hatch. It is mounted on top of a couple of
fiberglass ‘towers’ (for lack of a better word) to get the traveler
rail up 3-4" to clear the cabin top.
I pulled the end bolt on one side to remove the end stop so I could
replace the traveler. I squirted some RTV up into the bolt hole from
inside the cabin to make sure the hole was sealed. While there, I
noticed that the other bolts looked like they had been leaking in the
past, so I pulled them and gave them the same RTV treatment. So what
do you think happened the next time I washed the boat? They leaked
even worse than before! Now that I think of it, when I inserted the
bolts, a lot of RTV came out. I think the bolt holes were dirty and
the RTV didn’t stick and so most/all got pushed out. So I have two
questions:
-
Is the area of the traveler bolt holes solid faberglass so I don’t
have to worry (too much) about water getting into the core? -
How to properly seal? Do I need to remove the towers and seal them
to the deck (or maybe just squirt some sealer around the bottom of
the towers)? Remove the rail from the towers and seal them to the
towers? Both? Just clean the holes better before re-installing the
bolts so the sealer stays in the hole? Squirt the RTV where the bolts
go into the rail?
Thanks, Greg