[stevebrownell]

Trayder,

Agreed; right after I posted I decided to cut the stanchion bases off with a makita right angle grinder and a cut-off wheel. I'm about half way finished with the operation, but the snow we had in MA yesterday put a damper on things!

Will probably end up finishing the removal this week - thinking that I'll use a Dremel with a carbide bit to rout the degraded fiberglass from around the frozen bolts, remove them, and fill the holes with epoxy/filler mix. Just had to get over the hump of tearing into the gunwales - sort of a two steps forward, one step backrocess. No way a 30 year-old rail is going to give up easily.

Also looking forward to seeing people in Newport this summer.

Planning on taking pics on the restoration and posting them along the way.