They might have been designed as levers to pry open a deck. In fact, whenever someone shoves a boat off a dock with a hearty thrust to a stanchion, that s exactly what can happen. In a fiberglass deck, stanchion movement can cause crazing and cracking in the gel coat. In a wood deck, movement will strain the fasteners and loosen the base, disturbing the bedding compound that forms a vital waterproof seal. In each case, saltwater and rainwater leaks result.
Leaks can run along stringers and liners, emerging some distance from the source.
But leak damage isn t just cosmetic. It can rot interior woodwork or saturate a deck core, leading to delamination, structural degradation and costly repairs. A leak signals that you need to rebed your stanchion bases. If they were properly fitted in the first place, this is not a big job. You can do one at a time, but it s wiser to rebed them all at once.