seaslave1

installed pedistal seats and the tip of one screw went through the hull. can i get away with just patching the outer hull? any suggestions would be appreciated, thanks

Bryan A.

What kind of boat????

Depending on where it is you could do a multi layered patch from the outside.

Can you get at it from the inside????

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2003 Parker 2530 "El Mar".......click the pic
1973 Seacraft 20SF

seaslave1

mfg, fiberglass lapstreak

Scup

Come on guys, give Seaslave a hand. He should not have to go to another site to get his answer. I know you are probably still laughing, but we have all done some stupid things in the past. Seaslave, a small thru-the-hull hole is no big deal to fix. Fiberglass is very forgiving! Why only one member responded is because we do not know exactly what you have. I picture you mounting a pedestal base very close the side of the boat. For whatever reason, you decided to use wood screws. Probably you pre-drilled pilot holes through your deck for the pedestal base and then proceeded to screw it in. Likely, the screw closest to the side went through the deck, and was long enough to pass right on through the hull. There should be couple items that might be of concern here. Pedestal seats are great, but can be a real source of aggravation if not mounted properly. Think of it this way, if you are a normal sized man (say 200 pounds), you will have your rump attached to a lever arm (the pedestal's column) that will exert enormous dynamic loading forces on the pedestal's base as your ride bounces over a chop. If it could fail, it will. A pedestal seat, like any structure has to have a firm foundation. To save a buck, many boat manufacturers go cheap on the decking. What you see is fine, but underneath quite often you will only find 1/2" plywood, and even worse, they will often skip glassing in the underside of the plywood. At least they should have given it a coat of epoxy, but quite often do not even do that. I have seen this shoddy workmanship done in all sizes of boats, including a custom built 26 foot lobster boat. At best, unprotected plywood, will last ten years before your deck will start to become spongy. While I do not know your boat's arrangement, but guessing that it is a self-bailing cockpit, in which the decking provides a sealed void between the decking and hull, you now have the potential for all sorts of problems. Here is what I would do.
1. Determine what you have for a decking
2. Most pedestal seats are mounted with screws because one does not have access to the bottom of the decking. While screws can work, I would not even think of using them on a flimsy 1/2" plywood deck. Bolts with a backing plate, fender washers, followed by nylon lock nuts is far better.
3. If you do not have a solid deck, then you will have to either give up your idea of pedestal seats, or you will have to reinforced (rebuild the decking) the area where you are planning to mount the seats.
4. If you have a self-bailing cockpit, sooner or later and even with sealant, wood screws can potentially allow water seepage into the void below deck. Should you have a deck made of plywood that is unprotected underneath, I will give you ten years at most before you will doing a major tear out.
Your original question as to whether just fixing the hole in the hull would suffice can now be best be answered by you. Fixing the hole is no big deal, avoiding problems ten years down the line can be.

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"Success seems to be largely a matter of hanging on after others have let go" by William Feather