Leaky Loose Bowrail Stanchion Plate on 330DA

[rondds]

I was helping a buddy figure out why he has a whole bunch of bolts that are loose on the deck plates of his bowrail on a '99 330DA. each stanchion has 3 bolts that hold the deckplate down, and just about one bolt on each deckplate spins loosely when you put a phillips head screwdriver on it. we were able to get to the forward-most one on the starboard side through the anchor rode locker. we discovered that the deckplate is backed by a round aluminum plate and thru-bolted. amazingly, two of the nuts were backed OUT by about 1/4", and they are nylock nuts! if this was the case on the one and only stanchion we could visualize, we assume that this same problem exists on all the other loose ones. i have never seen a nylock nut vibrate loose so we can only figure that the bolt-tightening guy over at SR may have had a 3 martini lunch that day back in 1999.

anyway, another deckplate that has one VERY loose and spinning bolt is allowing water to seep in. thus, the area beneath the area marked SEAM in the pic below is getting wet.

here's the questions for you 330DA owners...
1. anyone else have a problem like this (loose bolts on the deckplates)
2. can the padded panel just below the seam be removed, and if so, HOW. We can get a finger in the spot marked WET and pull the panel down about 1/2", and it seems to be attached at either end of that panel; but, outside of using BRUT FORCE, we cannot find a way to remove the panel to get to the backing plate for re-bedding and tightening. any help would be appreciated! (note: we took off every panel that had visible screws and cant find a point of attachment).

 

[fc3]

Just Ducky has no loose screws or leaks. That cushion, where you have the word "wet" printed comes out and from there, I think you can pull the vinyl material enough to put a wrench on the nuts. If you look in the seam between the fabric and the vinyl, the seam at the top of the word "wet" you'll find a couple of phillips head screws buried in that seam. Back the screws out a bit and the cushion can be removed. You should then be able to reach behind the vinyl and find the nuts. I've had those cushions out. That's where I ran the water hose for the anchor wash down faucet I added in the anchor locker.

Best regards,
Frank