deck fasteners

I am about to strip the hardware off an old 'fish, refinish all surfaces with new poly, and re-attach/replace most hardware, including the bow handle, halyard padeye, etc.

Q: I notice on the web that a new bow handle comes with 4 screws, but I wonder: are all the deck parts screwed on, or thru-bolted? (I guess I'll find out when I start trying to remove them...and if they aren't screwed, I guess I am!)

On the older boats, there was a wood back-up board fiberglassed under the deck. and the bow handle and other deck fittings were simply screwed into the wood back up board with wood screws. Newer boats have a metal backup plate and the fittings are attached with s.s. machine screws.

A word of caution. Sometimes when you remove all the screws from a fitting, the wood back up plate separates from the inside of the hull (you hear an audible "thunk" when the wood lands in the bilge - been there/done that.) Leave one of the screws in to hold the block in place or else you will be installing inspection ports to reattach the back up board.

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY

Excellent advice. I was wondering about the same things (what is the hardware attached to?). I was just about the make the mistake of removing both screws at the same time and potentially having nothing to re-attach to .

Mine has a piece of fiberglass strap holding the wood in place so it would not fall, however it was rotted to the point it needed replacing anyways. I am working on refinishing the top on mine as well. I put inspection holes front and back for the express purpose of checking these sort of issues out, including checking for excessive moisture inside.

Banshi2007 said:

Mine has a piece of fiberglass strap holding the wood in place so it would not fall, however it was rotted to the point it needed replacing anyways. I am working on refinishing the top on mine as well. I put inspection holes front and back for the express purpose of checking these sort of issues out, including checking for excessive moisture inside.

Click to expand...

Can you tell me more about the inspection holes. I've heard that mentioned a couple of times in the forum.

Exactly what is the process to do this and are there some specific access covers that you use? Do you have any pics of these inspection holes?

http://www.sunfishforum.com/showthread.php?t=3221

Read the above postings on the subject of inspection ports. Scroll down to some of member "Supercub"'s photo postings as well. These port help a great deal in ventilation, drying out/ sponging out a leaky hull, making repairs, and upgrades as you are about to do. Also there is an advantage to creating a safe storage place inside your hull for a wallet, cell phone, glasses, and even a spare beverage too. The cutting of the hull could be searched using the search bar on this forum. I have used a jig saw with an abrasive finish like for tile cutting versus a toothed blade. Patience helps too. Best of luck.