I bought my 1979/37 cherubini last year and put it in the water in august. All seemed well! I got some advice about glassing in the chain plates because water could leak in to the ply wood between decks. i was called by the individual who gave me the advice in january and I ignorantly agreed to go ahead with the work. "Bad Idea!" He cut about a 4" square hole around 4 of the 6 chain plates so as to leave 2 attached for stability. What we found was the deck area we exposed was sopping wet and the weather to cool to properly dry it out if at all it could be dried out. I don't know anything about these procedures and must admit I was relying on some good advice which I don't feel I got. The other day he finally brought a moisture meter only to discover high moisture around a considerable area of the deck. In retrospect anyone knowing what they are doing should have suggested this first. Reason being wet cold decks are still sailable and warm or hot weather would be a more ideal time to commence on such endeavours. "I'm Pissed" and feel I might have to miss a considerable amount of sailing before I can do anything about it. I need good sund advice. Please help. How can I dry her out?
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One Idea
One method that I know of, but never have tried on the chain plate area is to drill alot of holes in the fiberglass. You will have to do this during the warm to hot months and put something over the boat to keep the rain out while it is drying. Fans do a nice job also. I know you don't want to hear this, but mine took 10 months to finally get dry enough to repair. Hopefully your moisture damage is not that bad. Drilling the holes is to dry out the undermat that is holding the mositure. I used this method on our last boat in repairing the bottom. After purchasing her and hauling her out, BLISTER CITY. I should stop here and give you my advice. Purchase The West System's Fiberglass Boat Repair & Maintenance, Catalog Number 002-550, Published By: Gougeon Brothers, Inc. P.O. Box 908 Bay City, MI 48707-0908. 517-684-7286 and Fax 517-684-1374. Also Gelcoat Blisters Diagnosis, Repair & Prevention, Catalog Number: 002-650 by the same publisher. If anything these books will educate you in the proper process of repairing your boat. Then you will have the knowledge to make decisions as to what needs to be done and how it is to be done. If you are not going to do this yourself, ask around and find out who does this type of repair and their reputation. Good Luck.
One method that I know of, but never have tried on the chain plate area is to drill alot of holes in the fiberglass. You will have to do this during the warm to hot months and put something over the boat to keep the rain out while it is drying. Fans do a nice job also. I know you don't want to hear this, but mine took 10 months to finally get dry enough to repair. Hopefully your moisture damage is not that bad. Drilling the holes is to dry out the undermat that is holding the mositure. I used this method on our last boat in repairing the bottom. After purchasing her and hauling her out, BLISTER CITY. I should stop here and give you my advice. Purchase The West System's Fiberglass Boat Repair & Maintenance, Catalog Number 002-550, Published By: Gougeon Brothers, Inc. P.O. Box 908 Bay City, MI 48707-0908. 517-684-7286 and Fax 517-684-1374. Also Gelcoat Blisters Diagnosis, Repair & Prevention, Catalog Number: 002-650 by the same publisher. If anything these books will educate you in the proper process of repairing your boat. Then you will have the knowledge to make decisions as to what needs to be done and how it is to be done. If you are not going to do this yourself, ask around and find out who does this type of repair and their reputation. Good Luck.
Ross the chainplates and deck
are not connected on your boat, meaning the plates are not attached or supported by the deck in any way. So you can install the chain plates and hook up the shrouds, and cover the deck holes with some plastic wrap and go sailing. Or better yet, install the plates and cut out some 5 inch squares of plastic sheeting perhaps 1/4 inch thick, cut a generous slot in the plastic pieces for the chain plate, put some Lifecalk, or other caulk that doesn't have too much adhesive qualities ( you will want to remive the platic covers in the future) on the deck and push the plastic covers down and caulk the slot too and go back to sailing. It is my understanding that you do not want to glass the chain plates to the deck, but leave a caulkable gap around the plates where they protrude through the deck. On your general moisture issue, it sounds like you had no symptoms of wet decks, no soft spots etc, before the "fix" so get a rubber mallet and bang around on the decks to see if any "dead" spots. Also you could remove the deck fill units, 2 water and 1 wast to investigate the decks in those areas.
are not connected on your boat, meaning the plates are not attached or supported by the deck in any way. So you can install the chain plates and hook up the shrouds, and cover the deck holes with some plastic wrap and go sailing. Or better yet, install the plates and cut out some 5 inch squares of plastic sheeting perhaps 1/4 inch thick, cut a generous slot in the plastic pieces for the chain plate, put some Lifecalk, or other caulk that doesn't have too much adhesive qualities ( you will want to remive the platic covers in the future) on the deck and push the plastic covers down and caulk the slot too and go back to sailing. It is my understanding that you do not want to glass the chain plates to the deck, but leave a caulkable gap around the plates where they protrude through the deck. On your general moisture issue, it sounds like you had no symptoms of wet decks, no soft spots etc, before the "fix" so get a rubber mallet and bang around on the decks to see if any "dead" spots. Also you could remove the deck fill units, 2 water and 1 wast to investigate the decks in those areas.
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