possible to dry newly wet decks?

[njabro]

I am looking at an early-80''s Hunter 36 for liveaboard. The boat has been well kept, but for the past year the owner hasn''t rebedded leaking in two portholes and where two shrouds are fastened through deck slits to continue through the cabin. Water coming in through the shrouds is evident as teak around the fasteners (in the head and on the port stowage cabinet) is starting to show signs of water damage. The deck, as expected, reads wet, though the problem has been relatively new. If it''s caught early enough, is it possible to ventilate the decks from below and dry them before they rot, remembering that it would be lived aboard and therefore relatively warm and dry all year? Or is this something that definitely requires repair?

[sailingfool]

My advice: move on.
You can find a number of threads, articles, books, etc. about repairing wet decks. Search this board and via google. I don''t think you''ll see much about mere ventilation doing the job, removing and replacing the old core seems the general solution. It''d be surprising, even for a Hunter, that leaking chainplates would wet the surrounding deck core. That''d be pretty dumb construction, but I guess it could be...
However, a greater concern would be that the bulkheads to which the chainplates attach are wet inside and rotting, and this problem you''d be talking real boat dollars to fix.
This is not exactly a classic boat, I assume it seems like too good a price to pass up - as I''ve commented from experience, the most you can hope for in a boat is to get what you pay for.
Move on.

[njabro]

that''s what I feared I''d hear, but it makes sense.

I don''t know how much of the deck is wet and where, as I haven''t had a meter to it myself. As for the bulkhead, it''s not a problem. Her chainplates are odd, though; the shrouds don''t bolt to the deck with chainplates continuing below and attaching to the bulkhead (as I''m used to). Hunter 36 shrouds attach to heavy stainless hardware above the deck, which passes through a stainless-fitted (and supposedly sealed) slit in the deck. Then they pass down through some furniture toward the lower portion of the hull; I haven''t seen how they''re fastened below, though. They''re not even really near the bulkhead.

This means water''s been passing through these slits, and I don''t know if they''re bare core, or whether the stainless fitting around the slit (both above and below) covers the deck core (which makes more sense).
The only visible water seeping is under a starboard window, where the 110-volt outlet directly under the window shows signs of goo (don''t turn on the AC!) and the cushions underneath are stained.

Thanks for your reply. Might''ve saved me a headache. Am still interested to get a meter to it myself, though.