I removed the port toe rail from my M23 looking for an elusive leak that I assumed was in the hull to deck joint. I don't think the joint itself is the problem (it certainly wasn't on Faith). The source of the leak is probably the bolt holes for the toe rail. Remove the bolts (2 person job-1 inside 1 outside) and carefully rebed each one with boat life caulk. Allow the caulk to set up before you tighten the bolts down and try to tighten them with the nut only turning. If you can keep the bolt from turning the seal will not be compromised. You can take the toerail off completely if you like, but I'm willing to bet that rebedding the bolts along the low point especially will stop your leak. That was all that I really needed to do to Faith. Removing the toerail was simply a lot of unnecessary work. Give it a shot. It can be done in a lot less time although you still need to remove the interior wood to access the nuts (not really very difficult to do). Good luck Mark Dvorscak M23 Faith M15 - awaiting rebirth -----Original Message----- From: montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:montgomery_boats-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Robbin Roddewig Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2012 6:52 PM To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Subject: M_Boats: deck hull joint leak (I think) Hi there M-boaters, I have a question regarding some water intrusion and rot. When I pulled out my port quarter berth cushions the other week to have them recovered I noticed some water below one of the cushions. There was no reason it should be there so I started to poke around. I found that a section of the ash strips on the side of the hull were black and rotted (nasty looking). The previous owner had put a hanging zip bag over this section hiding it so I had not noticed it before. I believe that this area must be seeing leakage from the deck (it is below a port light but no way is this amount of rot from a leaking port). The area that is molding and is just below where the water tends to pool on the side decks. The perforated toe rail does not allow all the water to drain. So I am guessing that it has been seeping in through the toe rail/deck hull joint where it pools. I want to take off the ash slats to see what is going on but I have a shelf in the way. I nice teak shelf without any water damage. How can I remove the shelf? It has teak plugs all over but I did not want to just start drilling them out. Any suggestions on decyphering how the shelf is attached? If it is the joint (which it just has to be) how does one go about resealing? I think Sean said he has done some work like this but I do not remember to much description except it was not fun. Any suggestions will be most appreciated. Cheers Robbin M-23 and M-10