Seperating a deck from the hull

[83KingFisher]

Alright guys, only my third post, but I already need help.

Is there a trick to seperating the deck and the hull on a fiberglass boat, or am I dreaming about being able to do this?

I have an 83 KingFisher I'm trying to rebuild, and the deck and hull are seperated at the bow, and I think I need to just about completely remove the deck in order to make proper repairs. Basically I can grab the deck at the bow of the boat and lift it about 1/2" from the hull. Any ideas?

-Bobby

[seaeagle2]

I did it on a 17' runabout, this may or may not help. 1. There is a book called Runabout Renovation that walks you through it. 2. If it has a rubrail, it is probably covering the fasteners that hold the deck to the hull. There are two basic types of hull to deck joints, one is "shoe box" where the deck fits over the hull, its the kind I had and I just drilled out the fasteners. then the deck lifted off. Most are riveted or screwed, my was from a small builder in BC, Canada, and they actually used closet bolts and nuts. If the deck has a windshield attached, you will need to provide extra support at that point, because the glass will be very heavy compared t the rest of the structure and it will sag there. I'm from puget sound country where there are very few CC's, so I don't know if that's what you have.

[drydock]

First, do you really need to remove it, or can you just block it up to work on the bow area? If you actually need to fully remove it, I'll give you my 2 cents worth based on what I did. As mentioned, I drilled out all the rivets and unscrewed all the screws holding the top to the hull, mine was a shoebox on a 21' CC. The console and floor were not part of the top, so I had gunnels and a forward deck and hatch system to remove. I worked the top up until I could place 2x4's at various places to give me the separation needed. I my case I had rented the largest engine crane I could to remove the V8 from my boat, so I used that crane with several straps to lift the top off without flexing it too much. I went to that length because I had to replace stringers and motor mounts and needed to remove everything until I had just the hull. If you don't need to go to that length, I would suggest trying to just block the deck up enough to make the repairs, then lower and resecure it.