New Bow Roller - what sealant?

[smanch]

I am putting on a new longer bow roller, and am not sure what to use to seal the stainless bow roller to the deck. Bedding compound or a silicone sealant/marine grade caulk?

FYI. The bow roller has a backing plate and the roller will install on top of my deck, with the stainless backing plate under the deck, essentially in the anchor locker. The bow roller is attached be 5 stainless nuts and bolts. This is on a Catalina 42 MKII

Thanks

Scott


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[Cherp]

I prefer to use a flexible sealant like butyl rubber in those applications. You can buy reasonably good quality butyl in a tube these days.

[ErikFinn]

You might want to view this video:

Marine Caulking~ Which One Do I Use?

[laika]

Many folks will tell you to avoid silicon like the plague. It leeches into your fiberglass making future rebedding much more difficult. I'm a big fan of butyl tape, but it's pretty hard to use if the roller bends over the stem or you have bulwarks it has to snug up against. If there's no tight bends to contend with, thatd be my choice.

Boatlife polysulfide is great, but I'm not sure if they make a UV inhibiting version. The regular stuff will brown pretty quickly in sunlight.

Lot's of people swear by sikaflex, but I have no experience with it.

3M 4000 UV inhibited is good stuff, but it might be hard to get the thing off down the line.

..my god, the choices in life.

[belizesailor]

Quick before someone says "5200"...argh!

With 5 thru bolts you don't need an adhesive, like 5200, you need a sealant. Butyl tape and/or 3Ms 4000UV would be fine choices.

[s/v Jedi]

Yes butyl would be #1 for me too. If you want a liquid sealant per se then it must be a polysulfate, i.e. lifecaulk from boatlife.

[laika]

Originally Posted by Cherp

I prefer to use a flexible sealant like butyl rubber in those applications. You can buy reasonably good quality butyl in a tube these days.

Ah, I'll have to try that sometime. Thx

[roverhi]

LifeCaulk is my sealant of choice. It's chemical resistant, easy to clean up with Mineral Spirits, and remains flexible forever. Really haven't noticed any problems with UV damage as under a fitting there is no UV. Guess if you are going to run a bead along the edge of a fitting it could discolor but that is almost guaranteed to leak at some point in the near future.

Butyl is really good sealant for parts that have a lot of expansion like large ports and areas that need a gap filled. Butyl has issues though. First is it turns into an ugly slurry around any petroleum product that can permanently stain gel coat. Peel off the excess, don't try and clean it up with a solvent and don't use it where gasoline or other solvents may spill. It also continues to ooze out over time so you need to keep at peeling away the excess. It also takes a lot more time to apply than LifeCaulk. Can bed hardware a lot faster with other sealants than Butyl. Applying the tape, sticking it to the part and keeping it from from sticking to itself are niggly issues when installing hardware.

[Bill_E]

Butyl tape!! I am a convert. Like a religious convert I'll proselytize you to death! But I've found that I can make it work pretty easily on curves, odd places, etc.

Here's a link to MaineSail's article on how to do it.

Re-Bedding Deck Hardware With Bed-It Butyl Tape Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com

Bill

[wrwakefield]

I second butyl tape. Tenacious, seemingly everlasting, very forgiving, and easy to remove...

[redsky49]

Each, of course, have their place, though I have had enough poor experiences with Life Caulk that they will never again be used on any of my boats.

I go back and forth regarding caulks. Current favorites include 3M 4000 UV and Sikaflex 291. Both are quite flexible with adequate working times, with the 3M product faster to fully cure. Either have sufficient bonding strength for the vast majority of uses on board.

3M 4200 is a little too tenacious for many applications, and 5200 will rip off the gel coat before letting go. Reserve the 5200 for keel-to-hull and deck-to-hull, the only applications IMO where it would be appropriate.

I have used butyl tape in the past but have found better products for most applications. At this point I am only using it to seal under screw and bolt heads. The drawbacks are listed in prior posts above. The one great advantage for butyl is the virtually unlimited shelf life. I am not aware of anything that approaches it (except perhaps Dolfinite). Still, it is not usually my "go to" product.

I have also found that I am happier when doing much more masking prior to application. For this I am usually marking (with pencil) the outlines of the component prior to removal (if existing), or after dry-fitting (if new). Tape is cheap compared to the cleanup of some of these sealants/adhesives.

Dow 795 Silicone is also aboard, as well as several quick-setting epoxies, several waterproof wood glues, Blue Monster thread sealant, methacrylate etc., etc.

You never know when you might need that small tube of Magic Super Whatchamacallit to patch a sail, a laceration or a water leak.

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Bill_E

Butyl tape!! I am a convert. Like a religious convert I'll proselytize you to death! But I've found that I can make it work pretty easily on curves, odd places, etc.

Here's a link to MaineSail's article on how to do it.

Re-Bedding Deck Hardware With Bed-It Butyl Tape Photo Gallery by Compass Marine How To at pbase.com

Bill

Why use anything else? After 35 years of messing (literally) around with silicone, this is my go-to bedding material.

[malyea]

Any choice is fine....as long as you avoid silicone or 5200.

[Cheechako]

Marine sealant, not silicone based. (although there re some really good ones) Apply very liberally and fillet/remove what oozes out. Lifecaulk, 4000, 4200, 5200, Sika, UV stabilized better.
I like taping off the surround also, leaving some gap for a fillet of caulk.

[smanch]

Folks

Thanks for the tips and the education. Ordered the bow roller last night, and expect to install some non-sailing day next month.

Let's hope they didn't use 5200 to bed the original down and I should be all set.

Scott


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