Hi Robbin, Thought I would respond because when I bought my M-23 in Tucson the inside of the hull was not lined in wood as most factory finished boats were. Sean was the first one to notice that on my boat the hull to deck joint was fiberglassed together on the inside. I don't think this was typical, but it does not leak. Not sure if the fix for you would be better from the inside or outside. I have since insulated and lined the inside of the hull with wood but made it so I could remove the wood strips if needed to get at the hull or deck joint. By the way, living in Bellingham now and the boat is in the water at Sandy Point. Had a great time sailing out to Sucia Island the other day. Got to sail about 7 miles on one tack... Nice to be in 'big' water again! Should be ready for the next montgomery San Juan trip! Jeff M-23 Clarity ________________________________ From: Robbin Roddewig <robbin.roddewig@verizon.net> To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2012 6:51 PM 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