I spent the weekend in Washington doing the survey and sea trials on "Hungry Water", the Krogen Whaleback 48 I am buying. Overall, the survey came out just fine. The surveyor did note however that there were high moisture levels in the forward three feet of the deck around the bow fittings and anchor windless and recommended rebedding all the hardware in that region. I would appreciate any advice on this. Since there has been water impregnation into the core material (balsa), I presume I will need to remove all of the hardware and then apply something like a heat lamp to the deck area to cause the water to vaporize and exit through the holes left by the removed hardware. Once dry, then I will need to rebed all of the fittings. I wonder if anyone has any experience with this sort of thing and if my general approach is correct? I am a little concerned at using a heat light in that it will expose the gel coat to high intensity light that might cause cross-linking and subsequent brittleness. Yet if I don't use some heat source, even with our warmer winter temperatures here in Savannah, I doubt if the core will dry out. The surveyor said there had been no deterioration of the core material but that I should rebed the fittings as soon as possible to prevent any deterioration. All ideas welcomed! We close on the boat on Friday. I have to admit I am more than a little excited. A life long dream about to come true! Roy Norris

Roy -- If you have been reading these pages you know the problems some are going through with water intrusion. If I was buying I would remove some fittings and see if the core is wet and what kind of core it is. If it is wet you may have a job coming up you might not want to get involved in. Get a firm estimate as to what this would cost to repair from a disinterested craftsman and let that help make up your mind about the purchase. AL ============================================================== >I spent the weekend in Washington doing the survey and sea trials on "Hungry >Water", the Krogen Whaleback 48 I am buying. Overall, the survey came out >just fine. The surveyor did note however that there were high moisture >levels in the forward three feet of the deck around the bow fittings and >anchor windless and recommended rebedding all the hardware in that region. > Captain Al Pilvinis M/V Driftwood--- Prairie 46 2630 N.E. 41st Street Lighthouse Point, Fl 33064-8064 954-941-2556 Fax 954-788-2666 Email CaptainAl@Juno.com Check site for color photos and info. Website http://home.earthlink.net/~yourcaptain/