[Public-list] Cockpit coamings.

[Jonathan Whittingham]

Dear Listers,
                Have finally remembered to write down my hull number for 
posting. "EMMY" is hull #425. She was originally "WINDBOURNE 2", when I 
bought her she was, I am embarassed to confess, "PAIN IN THE ASS", 
named, according to the owner, for his recently divorced wife. I am just 
passing on the facts!
             I started to look at my cockpit coamings and, hey presto, 
before I could stop myself, I had one of them right off the boat.They 
are teak but with a number of rather unfortunate splits. The mounting 
block for the winch is quite rotten, so I am happy that I removed it 
before a hard reach did the job for me. My questions are two 
fold(probably more by the time this is resolved)
     1. The coamings are attached with bolts that "disappear" into the 
space bewtween the deck and the underside of the locker. There appears 
to be a cavity in there that now has the nut that must have dropped off 
when I unscrewed the bolt. Hmmm! What recomendations for re-attachement? 
I am thinking about drilling say a one inch hole from below into that 
cavity right where the horizontal hole will be to pull the new boards 
into place, so that I can slip a washer and nut in there.
    2. I am considering rebuilding the coamings out of marine grade 
plywood and fibreglassing them before installing them. Aside from 
possible aesthetic protests from the purist faction, what opinions about 
this method?  Any other suggestions.

                    Many thanks in advance,
                                         Jonathan Whittingham (SOLE 
diesel 26 HP - just had to say it again)


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