Re-sealing Pedestal Guard Base

[Colonel Butler]

After washing down the boat in preparation to putting the winter cover on, I discovered the aft cabin mattress was wet. I removed the cover below the pedestal and found evidence of some past leakage and verified it by pouring water around the feet for the pedestal guard. Obviously I need to re-seal these. The four screws on each base are not through bolted so I assume they are screwed into wood core or maybe an embedded aluminum plate???? I am hoping to just remove the four screws for each base and get enough room to work some butyl tape into the joint and re-install without having to loosen up the bolts for the pedestal. Anyone out there had success with this technique?

[Jim Hardesty]

I am hoping to just remove the four screws for each base and get enough room to work some butyl tape into the joint and re-install without having to loosen up the bolts for the pedestal.

Think the problem with raising the pedestal guard and the base is the wires run inside them.  If I remember correctly there's set screws on the pedestal higher up, may be you could loosen them and the ones on the base, the guard would lift up (if there's enough slack in the wires and they aren't stuck at deck level with sealant), then it may be possible to clean the surfaces and reseal.
Jim

[Ron Hill]

Colonel : The only way you'll know how much slack wire Catalina left you - is to try!?!

If the wire is too tight to get stainless tubes out of the brackets, maybe you can atleast take out the 4 screws, pry up the tube brackets up and get a thin string of butyl rubber around & under the base perimeter, butyl rubber in the screw holes. Then screw it all back down and hope for a complete seal?!? 

If that doesn't work - then pry up the brackets and shoot a bunch of silicon under and hope that seals.

A few thoughts

[Colonel Butler]

You have confirmed my line of thinking. Really don't want to goop a bunch of caulk externally. That's what the PO did after having to dismantle to install a new auto helm 4000+.

[Ron Hill]

Colonel : You are correct, External caulk will NOT last.
I'm sure that you can at least pry up the pedestal brackets and shoot some caulk underneath if you can't raise the brackets hi enough to use butyl rubber!!  Good Luck

A thought

[Rortega46]

I had a similar problem with the pedestal guard leaking into the aft cabin.  After unscrewing the tube brackets I used butyl tape to seal the leaks.  No messy caulk to deal with.  Butyl tape worked great and I've had no leaks for a couple of years.