Should I raise stanchion bases now the teak deck has gone?

[demonboy]

Been pondering this one for a while. On some boats I notice stanchion bases (and some other deck fittings) are raised. Now that I have removed my teak deck, and therefore lost 10mm (15mm was laid but I've added 5mm or so of biaxial/epoxy), there is less deck for the fittings to go through (deck is ply). Of course the bases were still flush with the teak deck so I'm wondering whether it's worth the hassle, time and money to create wooden bases to be fibreglassed in place before painting the deck. I understand that some people raise deck fittings in order to minimise water build-up, but when you're in a tropical downpour at anhcor, or slamming through waves in a rough sea, the deck gets soaked regardless and the water still runs off.

With modern fillers I can't believe adding 10mm of wood is going to keep the fittings from leaking, so is there any advantage in raising the stanchions other than to give them strength? Should I raise them in order to give them the strength/flexibility possibly lost from the teak deck? Maybe I should make teak bases and add them in after the deck has been painted.

 

[rob2]

I don't know whether your decks are wood or, GRP, steel... I would be inclined to match the material for a raised base to the substrate, so that maintenance is the same. If you're working on GRP, then the best answer would be to manufacture GRP blocks (truncated pyramids) and epoxy them onto the deck. The benefit is that rainwater cannot pool around the stanchion bases and find its way down the fasteners, this is possibly most important if the deck is balsa cored and it finds its way into the core. If you choose not to build upward, then the same strength can be provided by good sized backing pads below decks.

Rob.

 

[pcatterall]

Having suffered leaky wooden decks for several years my preference was to have stanchion bases on a raised pad with the top of the pad shaped to ensure that water would run off the fittings base. The pad of course to be epoxied onto the deck. The main issue I had was when the boat was still ( it does happen!!) and water would pool and stand against the fitting base then find a way under.
Stanchions always seem to suffer movement at the base ( people grabbing them, fenders pulling etc) and water seems to find a way in.