After repainting the deck & cabin top I am about to re-bed my portholes. My next door dock neighbor pointed me to a website with 'how to' information about installing/re-bedding portholes & deck fittings.  The info a) reinforced my firm belief that 5200 is a terrible caulk/sealant (he calls it the 'devils glue') and b) the best bedding compound is butyl rubber tape.

But wait! there's more!

Aside from how to properly bed deck hardware the site is a wealth of useful 'how to' information on other maintenance related topics as well...  Servicing tapered cone seacocks, installing battery monitors, changing impellers,  rebuilding this/that, and other topics of interest to us Westsailors..  Well worth a look see & bookmark.

http://www.pbase.com/mainecruising/boat_projects

This sounds like a good idea, has anyone else had experience with butyl tape, I have a lot of bedding to do come summer and would rather not do it twice.

Just came across a great link on using butyl tape for bedding...