Hi all,
I want to make my wooden GP14 more “cruising-friendly”, and add anchor fair leads and and a mooring cleat to the front deck.
However, I’m nervous about putting holes in the deck for water to penetrate and lift the varnish, especially since I’ve recently spent a lot of time and effort to take the decks back to bare wood, and treated with CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer) and several layers of varnish.
I’ve googled the subject extensively, but the results I can find either relate to GRP hulls with wood underneath (drill and fill), or give advice on using butyl tape with through-bolted fittings. Whereas I will be screwing the fittings to a wooden deck.
I’m thinking of drilling a pilot hole, with a small counter-sink, pouring some CPES into the hole (to protect the now bare wood), and then bedding the fitting with butyl tape. The small counter-sink should give somewhere for the tape to spread into to ensure a water tight seal.
Does that sound reasonable?
Is there a better, tried and tested way to do this?
I’m going to cry if I drill holes in my pretty wooden deck, and end up with lifted varnish and/or water damage marks 🙂
Thanks for your advice.