Monkey Snot

Sailors always have colorful names for things on boats, we all know that. I mean really.
We can pretty well figure what a Boom is - it's the horizontal tube under the main sail that hits your head and goes "boom" just before you see stars and fall over. Boom vang on the other hand is just enough to make you go "what". I mean, okay - it pulls the boom and therefore the main sail down - so what language root is it that vang comes from?

So what's this Monkey Snot stuff anyway? Back when I was wearing Uncle Sam's Canoe Club uniforms (US Navy) we had this gray putty goop that we used to seal stuffing tubes. See, you just can't write a sentence about boats without a glossary.
 A stuffing tube is a hole in the bulkhead (wall) that has a wire or something else running through it where you don't want the wire to be permanent. You stuff the putty into the hole to stop air, smoke and water from coming through. In warm weather the putty tended to soften to the consistency of, you guessed it, monkey snot.

What's that got to do with a modern sailboat? Funny you should ask.

Deck hardware (cleats, tracks, shrouds, turningblocks, cams, etc..) all have holes from the bolts that hold them down, those holes go through the deck and are fastened. Holes equal leaks, leaks equal water inside the boat. The only water desired inside the boat is used for ice cubes to chill the Rum (or I guess the beer for those that do).
Even small amounts of wetness means mold, mildew and possibly rot. So we seal the holes around the bolts and under the hardware. It's called bedding the hardware because we are sailors. We can't just call it sealing the deck underneath the what-cha-ma-call-it. It's not allowed.

If just anyone could speak the lingo we would not be special, and I don't mean ride the short bus to school special. We really don't make it up, everything has names or terms.

So, for the past several lifetimes Marc and I have been re-bedding his hardware on his Coronado 25.
The process is pretty simple to describe, not so easy to do sometimes, especially on a older boat.
You take off (unbolt, screw and pry) the old stuff, clean thoroughly with various toxic and or flammable substances and then apply the goop of your choice to seal it and bolt it back on.
After long discussions and much research Marc decided to go with my old favorite for the goop of choice.
Monkey Snot. Known to others as butyl tape.

Here's some pictures.  I'm going to make them small, you can click to enlarge.

A stanchion, 32 years old, slow leak into the cabin below.

One of the bolts had stripped and needed to be hack sawed off.  We weren't smart enough to take pictures of one step by step, so this one is different, but you can see the dried up snot (caulk) from the original installation.  Cleaned, counter drilled (you open the hole a little at the top to prevent gelcoat cracking, lay some tape around and then put little rings of snot around the bolt helds..

Then you bolt it back down again.
Note the razor blade. When you tighten the bolts it squeezes (oozes is a much better descriptor) the monkey snot back out all around. The snot also shoots out from under the bolt head itself. Nice large splooges of snot show you got a good seal.
Rinse, wash and repeat. On Marc's 25 footer that means a multi day process, I think we have been going at it for a weeks worth of days now.

A lot of that is because previous owners have done it 'their' way. The photo above shows where I have removed and (believe it or not cleaned under) one of the stanchions on the stern, these were simply screwed on with wood screws so they needed to be drilled out and then done right to the "Marc and Chuck" standard which in this case meant bolts,  big fender washers, monkey snot etc.. Poor Marc had to spit out 40 bucks for bolts and such just for these four posts.

Now, we are two normal guys..I'm just saying, we didn't pose for these pictures, we just snatched a camera here and there and took a shot.

Here's what I'm saying - in case either of the Admirals ever reads my blogs -
not one can of beer or frosty cup of Rum is in any of these shots. We work long and hard hours under conditions of dehydration to get this done. If we hang out until it's too dark to see having a sip of frosty, we'll we've earned it. By the way, bring down a couple of drinks, ours have been stolen.