So, I decided to take it down and see what was under there.....Lots of nuts. Some of them showing evidence of leaking. Since some of the bedding was still original, and some hardware was added by DPD and bedded with silicone
and since there were some holes in the outside of the cabin top that really needed fixing and since I had discovered that the whole thing is also a balsa sandwich......I decided it was time to take all the hardware off.Well then there was the mast foot. Lots of cracking in the deck. Mast sat on the sandwich deck, with ( I later found) about a 3"x5" piece of 1/2" plywood under the mast foot. Below the compression post which is wood and light, did not align right under the mast, but followed the CB box up at an angle. So, since the cracked deck under the mast had let in water, things were rotting, and the mast was starting to come through the roof. DPD in their infinite wisdom "fixed" the problem by creatively installing a 2x8 compression post under the mast. The more I discovered, the more I realized that it was time for surgery. Get out the grinder. I removed the add on compression post, and took a slice out of the top layer of the deck. Removed wet balsa, the support plate, or what was left of it. Let things dry up and pour a solid base of epoxy in there. Below make a nice knee to support it all and transfer the load to the original compression post.
And then there was the wiring. Now mind you, this is not complicated. Nav lites, anchor lite, two interior lites and a 12 volt outlet. The original wiring was not tinned. Lots of corrosion at terminals. In addition to that, somewhere down the line someone had installed a (then) top of the line Nexus system. (Hence the holes in the back of the cabin) Speed, depth, wind, a GPS everything talking to each other. But, the original installation was poor, it was one hell of a mess, it was reported by DPD as intermittent and, it's outdated. It took about two hours to take EVERY wire out of the boat. I am starting over with quality wiring and terminals. Nothing like a clean slate.
