Aft port fairlead leaking - what to use to re-bed

[hollmanr]

Hi, my aft port fairlead has been leaking for a while now - today I removed the fairlead and cleaned the remnants of what I guess was the original bedding tape used in production. What would be a good product to use to rebed the fairlead. I've tried butyl tape but that seems to be too thick which has the fairlead sitting too high off the deck. Is there a Sikaflex product which is not permanently bonding ? (ie I don't want to use Sikaflex 291i in case the fairlead needs to come back off again at some point). Thanks ! Roland

[Yngmar]

You could just use a pure sealant like silicone (most of them are neutral cure now and don't damage metals), but really for this job an adhesive sealant is better, as it will stretch instead of detaching and opening a small gap like any pure sealant would on a highly stressed part that can move a little when the hull flexes under load.

Sikaflex 291i is using PU chemistry and no longer (finally even officially) recommended for exterior use. You want a modern MS polymer sealant like Sikaflex 591 or any other product with this chemistry.

Come removal time the usual solution is to bash a putty knife between the parts to cut the adhesive.

[kavok]

 I used MS polimer  Zucchini.

[blue-max]

On mine there was an aluminium backing plate which was very corroded due the lengthy period of leakage. As the aft cleats take a huge strain when mooring med style , I replaced the backing plate with stainless steel using the aluminium one as a template. Sealed well and stronger.