RS Aero Forum

Hi Brucekav,   Had the same issue. RS will advise on options - including 1) drill out oversized, epoxy filled or wooden dowel and redrill.  Or 2) pack out with wooden sticks and epoxy, dry and redrill. I did option 2 as a relatively quick fix - and I had the benefit of summer sun to dry.  It held of a while, however, failed at the nationals (proper windy!!). And got the job done properly as per photos.  Shock Sailing cut an access hole, replaced the completely rotten ply backplate with a carbon strip and made good. (In the photo you can see the repair before gelcoat done - now looks like new)

My conclusion is this is a bit of a design error - any water in the hull will collect in this area, being lower than the bung drain hole. And any fix that relies on the integrity of rotten ply will ultimately fail again, but others might have has more success with the less extensive fix??  My boat is 2197, maybe the is a better design now, without the exposed ply??