Soft wood around frond deck hatch

[satbuilder]

Hey all,

I'm in the process of doing some needed renovation work on a 1976 Blackfin Combi I picked up about 2 years ago.

Seems the wood substrate supporting the fiberglass deck, around the front hatch has swelled and is soft. Right now the soft wood seems to go out about 2 inches from the hatch. There's a bulkhead just forward of the hatch, and the soft wood hasn't gotten there yet.

I really don't think this repair job warrants replacement of the whole deck plywood substrate, and was wondering if anybody might be willing to share some thoughts on how to attack this problem.

Thanks in advance

[dry doc]

thoughts,

[1]you need a complete survey of your boat
at this point, because there may be OTHER
areas of rot within the coring...if other
areas are present, then you can decide if
the whole deck needs to come off (quite
possibly) and if there is also core work
in the transom or cockpit???...you should
NOT tackle the deck problem unless and until
you have a COMPREHENSIVE view of what all is
needed...you could elect to tackle it all at
once ( the glass work, haulout, imron spray-
ing all have economies of scale!) which is
more sensible than doing work like that on
the installment plan....OR, you may come to
the horrifying realization that there is more
to be done than the boat or your finances can
justify.....a good surveyor can lay this all
out for you , including good estimates of the
price tag for it................dan

[satbuilder]

Dan,

Thanks for the reply.

The boat was surveyed when I bought it two years ago. The surveyor was very thorough and found nothing other than a suspect area around the front hatch.

I've been in, under and around the boat for the last year it's been out of the water. The soft wood was the result of water coming in around the front hatch seal.

Since I'm not putting the boat in the water this season, I thought it a good time to take care of the problem. My initial thought was to cut out the bad wood, replace it with fiberglass, and mount the hatch with a new seal.

[dry doc]

the repair is as you described....cut back to
solid core, glass in patch, replace hatch,
paint....several thoughts, if you have it nar-
rowed down nicely already...

[1] if you cut a scrupously marked square
of deck, you can use it as a pattern for
the piece to succeed it!....it is easier to
fabricate the piece on the shop bench than
on the boat...with correct application of
WEST system to this job, strength should be
100%, i.e. using some glass tape around the
perimete plus pads at the corners....

[2] additioal technique (and workmanship) is
to chamfer the edges of the deck upward and
the edges of the new piece downward so that
it both supports weight better than flush
edges, but increases the total area available
for bonding

[3]if you can, include the hatch installation
in the cutout above, allowing you to install
it on the bench also.

[4] in keeping with the "one-piece-one-time"
philosophy, if you cut an very accurate piece
out and drop a very accurate piece in that
hole, you should have clean gel at the margin
of the deck....i have always found "feather-
ing" of paint a lost cause, so you could try
to color-match "at the bench" more easily
than "in place"....ie you can do several coat
job with progressive refinement of pigment to
match the old gel color as it is now...t

[3] if you ever thought of refinishing your
deck, now is the time!....the process of put-
ting in the patch is identical almost to the
process of removing all deck fittings for an
imron job, and you could prep the deck and
the patch piece, install it, and have a new
paint job unite the whole deal seamlessly...


dan

[satbuilder]

Dan,

I follow most of what you're saying.

One thing I was thinking about, though, was just cutting the bad wood out and leaving the exterior fiberglass shell intact.

Then, as you had mentioned, either fabricate a piece, or, bond or glass and bond in place from below.

Thanks for the input so far.

Kurt

[DiamondDave]

Satbuilder, you have the right idea. Cut out bad wood grind fiberglass smooth and install new wood. I would build some kind of jig to support the replacement piece. Then resin coat the wood completely. You will probably have to use several pieces to match the convex shape of the deck. Install blocks in epoxy and use jig to support them tight against the deck. When this has dried remove the jig and glass over the wood. Cut out for hatch and reinstall.

[seaclusion]

If the part that you have to remove is not too big, why not replace with a bigger hatch if they are available? May save hours of you wishing you had not started a "glass job". I don't mind labor intensive projects, but sometimes less is more in the end. Just my $.02.

[dry doc]

if the laminate over top of the wood is sound,
then going from below will work fine...beware
of the grinding when you are necessarily looking
up!!...eyes, nostrils, and even collar can trap
the glass dust in that position...the way i men-
tioned is more work and more aggressive, but its
virtue is the no-grinding aspect....dan