Stellar Hardware Question

[Wolf]

I just bought a used Stellar S16 (Gen 1). One of the thru-deck screws that holds the rear carrying handle is a bit loose, and I would like to tighten it. It’s a Phillips screw on the outside, so I assume there’s a hex nut on the inside. But there are orange/brown dome-shaped covers on the inside where the nuts would be. I assume that those are to seal the deck and avoid having sharp fasteners on the inside. Does anyone know if I can get access to the nuts? I don’t mind having to reseal the deck when I’m done but I don’t want to just start chopping away blindly.

I’ve also asked Stellar via their website.

[rstevens15]

Interesting solution by Stellar and likely meant to keep the nut from turning in addition to leaving a smooth surface, which it apparently failed to do. You can probably carefully chip away the epoxy and replace the nut with a stainless acorn nut. I replaced all of the through hull fastener nuts on my boat with acorn nuts after a bolt ripped a drybag.