Its not the perils of the sea that kills these boats. Its deck core rot.
Even serious deck rot may not make the boat unseaworthy, only unmarketable. The boat sits unsold and rots away. Sometimes a savior comes along. But, more often than not, the boat goes to the wrecker.
Of course every boat this old will have some rot somewhere. The trick is to find and arrest the problem before radical surgery is required.
A dripping screw or rusted nut is a sure sign of a leak. If you wait until the deck gets mushy, the damage is already done.
I decided to rebed much of my deck hardware. I removed the fittings and screws and put them in individual ziplock bags with labels. Then I took one of each and taped them to a piece of cardboard, noting the location, size and number.
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