8" Long Crack jetting out of the front corner of the headliner hatch hole corner at a 45 degree

[Doug Doty]

This is the only needed repair I have discovered beyond cosmetics. I would like to hear advise from others so I can consider options beyond what I've come up with. This crack in the headliner only leads out of the front starboard corner at a 45 degree angle about 8-10" Should took a pic but did not while in there. The deck above it walks surprisingly solid and I am a big boy. I am assuming that it is due to water intrusion at the hatch and freezing ?? Your thoughts ??

My current strategy is to pull the hatch assembly and see if I can dig back in there to inspect the wood. I can easily imaging it being bad coring or at lucky best maybe mostly on the under side.. Possible I could dig it out and replace with new material soaked in epoxy. and then treat the inside headline as a crack repair to retain as much original glass work as possible for aesthetics. I will not disturb the top side due to to it still being original and good. I am more lenient at to disturbing the inside as it is less visible but really don't want to work upside down with the epoxy in there. Thoughts ???

 

[greg_m]

"jetting..." !!!

 

[Doug Doty]

"jetting..." !!!

I guess that is a loose term, " sorry " to me it means it starts in that corner and travels out in a mostly straight line at that described 45 degree angle to the starboard bow direction. I was so windy today I had my ladder blow away twice and had to climb down the winch trailer stand. I will go back out and take a picture tomorrow to give us something to look at.

 

[Gene Neill]

This is the only needed repair I have discovered beyond cosmetics. I would like to hear advise from others so I can consider options beyond what I've come up with. This crack in the headliner only leads out of the front starboard corner at a 45 degree angle about 8-10" Should took a pic but did not while in there. The deck above it walks surprisingly solid and I am a big boy. I am assuming that it is due to water intrusion at the hatch and freezing ?? Your thoughts ??

My current strategy is to pull the hatch assembly and see if I can dig back in there to inspect the wood. I can easily imaging it being bad coring or at lucky best maybe mostly on the under side.. Possible I could dig it out and replace with new material soaked in epoxy. and then treat the inside headline as a crack repair to retain as much original glass work as possible for aesthetics. I will not disturb the top side due to to it still being original and good. I am more lenient at to disturbing the inside as it is less visible but really don't want to work upside down with the epoxy in there. Thoughts ???

Definitely gonna need a pic or two to hazard a guess. It certainly is comforting to hear that the deck sounds solid.

@greg_m will help you roll your boat upside down to work on the overhead.

 

[Jacktar]

Yep pictures will help us advise

 

[Doug Doty]

Looks nasty for sure. Looks like someone ahead of me thought squirting clear silicone in the crack was a fix I guess it does not matter since it needs ground out anyway. Since I have just had the boat a few days and need to wash it inside and out before anything else I will be very tender in this area since it is coming from 18 months under roof.

 

[Jacktar]

The liner is not actually attached to bottom of the deck, so maybe dremel out the crack enough to poke above it and make sure there is not softness, something structural allowed the liner to crack like it did. Maybe a half ass hatch cover repair etc. But if not soft just grind out a bit, put a bridge of clear tape behind it and then epoxy the crack and sand it flat. The bridge tape keeps you from injecting gallons of epoxy up in there.

 

[Doug Doty]

The liner is not actually attached to bottom of the deck, so maybe dremel out the crack enough to poke above it and make sure there is not softness, something structural allowed the liner to crack like it did. Maybe a half ass hatch cover repair etc. But if not soft just grind out a bit, put a bridge of clear tape behind it and then epoxy the crack and sand it flat. The bridge tape keeps you from injecting gallons of epoxy up in there.

....

Hey thanks for that, it really had not dawned on my that this was not a layup and attached to some plywood in behind originally, even though I did kind of know how the boat was built. helpful to realize !! I got to finish my cleanup and then will address that spot, as it bugs me... Just gonna pull the front hatch and re-bed if for no other reason than to gain access to facilitate a better repair.

 

[Gene Neill]

....

Hey thanks for that, it really had not dawned on my that this was not a layup and attached to some plywood in behind originally

I didn't know that either.

But I'm like you. I wouldn't be able to sleep until that was fixed!

 

[greg_m]

Hi guys... I realise my boat is built in SA but it was built under licence so should be as near as dammit to your boat. There is a plywood laminate in the foredeck around the hatch. In my boat this is bonded to the deck with a kind of pulp fiber glass strands resin mash. The hatch coaming that surrounds the hole in the deck in my boat was screwed to the wooden laminate using brass wood screws and sealed with some kind of caulking that has perished and allowed rain water to leak through. The inner lining was also bonded to the laminate using previously described method.

I think that over time, heavier than expected deck traffic (trying to be politically correct here!) and water ingress weakened the laminate to the point where it gave way. You can look back through my thread to see where I stripped away everything except the deck and rebuilt the entire structure solid with extra wooden "beams" laminated in for further deck support. I went BIG on the foredeck repairs and structure because I will be sailing on False Bay which can get pretty nasty in a matter of a couple of hours.

If your hatch coaming is screwed onto the the deck then I would definitely remove it to get at the gap between the deck and lining to try reinforce that area.

Check back through my thread "South African Catalina 22" to post #65 and onwards for the rebuild and previous posts for the taking apart of the foredeck area!

 

[Doug Doty]

Thanks Greg, that all makes perfect sense, and while the coring was attached to the underside of the deck originally, It only makes sense that they would have thrown some bonding agent of some sort in there to take advantage of the sandwich opportunity in a highly stressed area. While it seems as solid as I would expect to walk out there I am sure it is compromised or the inner liner would not be cracked the way it is. I will dig into it very soon and pulling the hatch assembly is the first step. I will make it good again. Thanks for that input.