What is under your 22 fuel tanks? (And how's it worked out.)

[anchorout]

When I removed my gas tanks for inspection, I found 1" or 2" diameters of rot under the floor in about half of the screw holes. I cleaned all rot around the holes, filled each with epoxy, and embedded bolts, head down, into the epoxy. Acorn nuts dress up the top ends of the bolts. I don't see how water can possibly seep into the core now.

[thataway]

C Dory 23, Do you mean setting the tanks directly on core material? If so, no. You need to have fiberglass between the core, and the tank, to protect the core.

There were many ways that the "cleats" were put in place. Mine were wooden core strips over the fully fiberglassed bottom of the boat (with core encapsulated). I don't know exactly how these were done, but it appears to have at least two layers of mat, and probably one layer of cloth. That layup would be good--and I would totally encapsulate the strips. I would prefer wood over starboard, because of resin adherence to the wood/vs poor adherence to Starboard. But you don't really need adhesion, if properly bedded, and the Starboard is a good material.

Anchorout's solution with SS bolts need down into the core would also work well. Probably an easier way would be to just cut out all of the old wet/rotted core, replace any bad core, or if in small areas, fill with thickened resign. then dill new holes, undercut, and put in new epoxy plugs to screw into. Any of these ways will work and prevent further water intrusion.

I have not put any strips under my tanks to elevate them off the bottom of the floor.