Bow Pulpit and Bow Pulpit Strut

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kthoennes

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Joined
May 7, 2011
RO Number
32590
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84
Ahh, spent the first long afternoon working on the boat in my shirtsleeves today. This week's job is pulling off the cracked, distorted bow pulpit and taking it to a fiberglass shop for repair -- unless somebody knows where I can get a new bow pulpit for a 1983 3207. The previous owner must have plowed into something bow-first very hard because he cracked the bow pulpit and lifted it off the deck. They slathered a pile of silicone in the gap, but it's a hideous mess and rainwater leaks under the bow pulpit, drips down the windlass, into the anchor chain locker, and down into the bilge. I'm hoping the fiberglass shop can straighten it out and I'll re-bed and seal it properly. Took out 18 bolts and screws to get that thing off -- six for the bow pulpit rail stanchions, four for the windlass, four for the bow pulpit itself, three for the bow pulpit strut, and one anchor swivel allen bolt. Pain in the neck. So here's the question:

The previous owner also bent the stainless bow pulpit strut that goes from underside of the pulpit to the stem/keelson about a foot above the water line. I know the 3207's had two styles of pulpit struts, long ones about five feet in length and short ones about two feet. Mine is the long style, and I suspect the PO probably whacked the bow against a high dock and kinked the strut. I need to take the strut off to take it to a welding shop to get it straightened or a new one fabricated. The foot of the strut is screwed into the keelson/stem with four big stainless machine screws. How in the world do I get to the nuts on those screws? I opened the cabinets under the V-berth, but the cabinet bottoms are too high. My V-berth floor is one piece of carpet, but is there an inspection panel in that floor that was maybe just carpeted over?

I suppose I could grind off the current screw heads, knock them inside with an ice pick, epoxy the holes, then re-drill new ones and replace the screws with stainless sheet metal screws instead.

Has anybody dealt with this?

Thanks.
 
yeah, kinda...

Different boat, different year, but likely a similar pulpit...I had to remove mine to have it re-cored. I was able to leave my pulpit strut attached to the hull tho, because it was in good condition. Not a lot to add, but I will mention I took ours off and had the work done over the winter, while the boat was shrunk...I will say that the bow rail section that attached to the pulpit was very difficult to get into proper position, during re-installation. I suspect if things are bent a bit, you may have to prepare for a bit of an alignment battle when you put yours back on, as well. Good luck.
PS, if I'd known how they would've repaired mine, I would have done it myself...
 
Oh yeah that's right, looking at pictures of 1988 Montegos it is similar, although your struts are shorter. I have no choice about fixing the pulpit because it's leaking badly and it's going to rot the deck core eventually where the bolts pass through, but I suppose I could leave that strut alone and live with the kink. I might need a spacer block at the top of the strut because the kink has shortened the overall length of the strut by about an inch. One of those "is it worth it" questions.

Thanks very much for the reply.
 
I'm of the opinion that these are the kinds of things that are worth doing right, if you're going to do it at all. It seems like you're headed in that direction. I'd get a new strut made, and make everything as original/proper as possible.
I'm fortunate, my pulpit is a complete bolt on...even removed, there's no way for it to leak into the cabin or locker, except at the bolt-thru holes. Yes, my strut's much shorter than yours, if I recall.
 
Here's a link to a few photos of the bow pulpit job, and the kinked strut. What a muddy mess with globs of silicone as big as a brick. The pulpit itself is at the body shop now. I thought it was destined for a trash dumpster for sure, but the fiberglass guy said they can repair it. You can see the bow is Swiss cheese, but luckily it all cleaned up well and all the holes were side-sealed (glassed) so all the decking and the core is still firm and solid, no rot or weakness whatsoever. Looks like all the leaking water ran down the anchor chain into the locker and into the bilge. At least the original installation of the bow pulpit was done right.

http://s35.photobucket.com/user/kthoennes/library/Carver%20Bow%20Pulpit%20Repair%20April%202014

What a mess -- glad I'm getting this done, long past due.
 
Yep, I remember that... Identical, more or less, to mine. Nice when it's all done.
 
Found a fiberglass master and got it done! I took it Ahlers Body Shop here in Sioux Falls. Rick Ahlers did a fantastic job. I thought he'd have to start from scratch, I thought for sure that old bow pulpit would just be used to take measurements and then get tossed in a dumpster. He straightened it, reglassed the inside, glassed a strengthening block inside the sandwich, added a non-slip orange peel texture on the topside, and made the whole thing shine. He even polished, re-blacked and re-riveted the aluminum trim around the bottom edge (I always thought it was rubber). Looks fantastic. He glassed over all the previous holes because now that it's perfectly straight again the alignment will be off and I'll have to re-drill the holes anyway (except for the two big windlass holes). Couldn't be happier. Now I have to clean off the dirt and mess and blobs of silicone, re-glass that extra hole in the bow, and put this thing back on.

Here's the before and after:

http://s35.photobucket.com/user/kthoennes/library/Carver%20Bow%20Pulpit%20Repair%20April%202014
 
Very nice, looks like a great job! I didn't re-black my aluminum trim, and wished I had.
 
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