Re-bedding the Bimini
After 20 months of leaving ITIKI on the hard stand in Greece, we returned to a few issues with the stainless. These bases around the Bimini frame were particularly bad. I cleaned the stains off the gelcoat multiple times with various noxious chemicals, only to have it return a few days later. We removed screws to investigate if these were the source of the rust, but they were not, they seemed to be fine and good quality.
We bit the bullet and removed the bimini completely, first taking off all of the clears and covers. The first 3 pictures show what we found. Pretty nasty rust stains on the deck and the undersides of the frame base plates. Because the sealant had been only applied around the screw holes, leaving plenty of space for moisture to get in and cause corrosion.
After cleaning up the fibreglass by gently scraping away the old sealant and chemically removing the stains, we were ready to remount the bimini frame. No pictures of the process as my hands were full! It took 3 people to hold the frame in place. We put enough Sika on the fixation points that it would completely cover the base of the frame, and some. Let it dry just a little before re-bedding the frame. Screws went in, but not so hard as to squeeze all of the sealant out the sides. We tried to leave 1mm thickness of sealant between the deck and the stainless plate. After letting the sealant set for a few hours we further tightened the screws.
This process seems to have done the trick and the rust stains are not re-appearing. We still have the problem on the frame around the cocktail deck and on the back transom, although it is not quite so bad as the bimini was. Unfortunately those areas are not as easy to access, remove and rebed.
This process seems to have done the trick and the rust stains are not re-appearing. We still have the problem on the frame around the cocktail deck and on the back transom, although it is not quite so bad as the bimini was. Unfortunately those areas are not as easy to access, remove and rebed.
Re-Bedding the Table
The table in the saloon also started "bleeding" rust onto the deck. Once we hauled out in Carriacou, Grenada, we decided to tackle this problem. The table came off relatively easily, undoing the screws and working it gently off the sealant. Same issue under the base, insufficient sealant and lots of rust. It took quite a bit of cleaning up and as you can see the non-skid ended up being smoothed out. Cleaned up the underside of the bases of the legs as well before masking up and putting a barrier ring of Sika around the edges. Hopefully this will act as a dam and completely seal off the area under the base of the legs, ensuring no moisture can get in and cause more corrosion. The first image below show the extent of the problem.
The next set of images show the extent of the corrosion under the table legs and how we managed to clean the area of the deck, as well as the base of the legs.
Clean finish
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Masking up and Sika barrier
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Packed up for the season, looking good so far
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Finally the table was lifted back on to the base and re-attached with the screws. So far so good as the rust stains have not re-appeared.
