Water damaged starboard salon and galley veneer

[Macdonaldfarm]

Hi there! Hurricane Ian deposited 3 ft water inside the starboard aft area of our 2004 350 when the jack stands collapsed. Oven is an aquarium, without fish, along with all galley/air con equipment. The water seeped up along the s/b salon and galley veneer panels leaving a visible water line. We want to replace both panels with replacement 1/4" Catalina supplied veneer material or suitable replacement (?). There are many questions. First, has anyone attempted to replace these side hull interior panels before and if "yes", would you please provide some knowledge. Lastly, there are s/s bolts/nuts at the top portion of the panels which I think bolt the panels in place as well as hold the exterior rub rail in place. Can anyone confirm that these bolts hold the rub rail in place ? and if "yes", if I take off the nut when installing a new veneer panel, will I be able to re-tighten the nut without having to remove the rubber part of the rub rail so that I can tighten the nut on to the thru-bolt? As we all know, one starts with one specific rework and then as you get into it, some additional headaches/discoveries present challenges. Any and all knowledge of this re-work of interior salon panels would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

[KenKrawford]

Sorry about your Ian induced problems. You’ve proved that even being out of the water doesn’t keep you out of harms way.
I believe that the nuts & bolts you are referring to not only secure the rub rail but also form the hull to deck joint. I suspect that removing the nuts and then re-attaching them will result in at least a few of the bolts spinning. Gaining access by removing the affected area of the rub rail will be a real chore especially if the ambient temperature is low. If all else fails you may have to resort to cutting the rub rail and replacing it.

[Macdonaldfarm]

Thank you, Ken. We are researching all options and your insight has greatly helped us.
Thank you so very much. And yes, doing everything correctly prior to the storm; out on jack stands AND hurricane strapped fore and aft, and then Kaboom! No match for that 208 mph burst!
Hopefully, we’ll be back in the water and looking pretty by Springtime 2023. Cheers!

[TBOT422]

Sorry to hear about your damage. I replaced the rub rail section on our 350 last year. You are correct, the nuts on the interior are likely for the thru bolts that form the hull/deck joint and they do go thru the rub rail. Ours were on 16" centers. There are additional #10 wood screws through the rub rail as well. Highly unlikely you will be able to remove the nuts without removing at least a section of the vinyl insert, but that is a very easy job. It should easily pull out of the aluminum extrusion, and if not damaged, you should be able to put it back in. If damaged, I think the rail and insert may be the same as used on the production Catalina 22.

I am assuming you were on the hard at Safe Cove Marina. We were in the water on D dock at Burnt Store. The pilings on D dock failed and the entire dock with all the boats attached drifted off like a big barge into the C dock and then the B dock. The Best of Times was in the middle of the scrum. We have some cosmetic damage to stanchions, bow railing, etc. But our big problem is that a section of the floating dock got under the tansom and bent the rudder partially pulling the rudder post away from the interior hull. We have made some temporary repairs and I believe the boat is driveable and we plan to drive it to St. Pete next week for haul out and repairs.

I plan to be at the marina this weekend if you would like to discuss access to the deck bolts. You could send me a private message, or I believe you have my phone number.

[Macdonaldfarm]

Hello Gary,
Sorry to hear about your Ian issues. And sorry not to have answered sooner, as I did not see your post until today, been very busy.
Hopefully your sailboat is on the way to being repaired. We did see her amid the mayhem and we were hoping she wasn't too badly damaged.
So much for brand new floating docks. The wooden dock that you and I were chased off of, meaning U Dock, became one of the only docks that survived Ian's wrath. In fact, they have moved all the liveaboards to T, U and V docks because they held up??
We are still finishing our remediation work, this has been since October 14th, just about every day. On a good day, a sailboat is alot of work, but after a hurricane, it is exhausting. Take care and hopefully we'll see you back at Burnt Store, if either of us gets back there!

[TBOT422]

We were able to cut off a portion of the top of the rudder that was hitting the hull as we tried to turn the rudder through to port. That gave us some steerage and we were able to drive the boat to Elite Marine in St. Pete for repairs in Mid-November. We needed about 1/2 of the rudder travel to port in order to make the boat go straight. So turns to port were a slow slog. Elite was able to get it hauled out around Mid-December and started working on a repair estimate. We are still waiting on some part pricing from Catalina to finalize the estimate and send it to the insurance company and see what they are willing to pay for. Fortunately we don't have any interior water damage. Just the rudder, stanchions, gel coat scratches, etc. We will have to replace all of the rub rail as Catalina no longer has the aluminum extrusions that I replaced part of last year. All we can do now is wait, and have a lot of patience. Every aspect of this is backlogged. Even after they get it repaired we don't know where we will be able to get a slip. Most marinas and closed their wait lists as they have a 1 to 2 year backlog. All we can do is play it be ear each day.

Good Luck to you and Moonraker