Since I couldn't find any topics or projects that were exactly like mine, I thought I would start a thread documenting my project to rebuild the foredeck on my '71 Catalina 27.
As a little background, my wife found our boat last October. She purchased it (off Craig's List) without an inspection, survey or even an educated opinion from anyone that had ever sailed a boat (other than the previous owner). This was to be a "surprise" birthday present for me. According to her, "it looked cute and it was red, so I bought it." Finer boat buying advice could not be had....
So..... Never to walk away from a challenge, my lists of projects and repairs began.
I'm sure many of you are having a good laugh at my expense at this point. Believe me, I've laughed (and cried) about it, too. But just so you know, this re-core project marks the last of my projects from my original list! A friend of mine who knew the previous owner, and knew I had my work cut out for me, recently sailed "Cat 5" with me and was impressed at all how much all my hard work had paid off.
In a future post, I will outline some of the improvements/repairs that have been done. But for now, I thought I would outline my current project.
I knew when I first boarded her that the deck would need to be repaired. It was apparent that someone had attempted a repair job by "drilling and filling" some of the soft areas in the foredeck; to no avail. Also, a few of stanchions on the bow were ripping out. Not good.
Just yesterday, I started cutting into the bow after outlining where the soft spots were on the deck. I did this by going around with a light hammer and tapping, listening for a "pop, pop" or a "THUD". After doing this I was able draw out where I knew I had to cut away.
After using Roto-zip saw to cut away the upper deck, and seeing the mess of de-laminated plywood beneath, I knew that fully committing to this project was the right thing to do. No half-measure solutions were going to fix this problem.
I chiseled away a good portion of the rotted wood, down to the fiberglass. It was then that I realized that Catalina had just laminated the headliner on the bottom of the core, but the headliner is not bonded to the sides of the hull. It only is connected from where it comes down off of the dog house, and again up front toward the bow area; but it is not connected on the sides.
At this point, I realized that my original plan to clean off the wood from the headliner and just build back up from the headliner, well, that wasn't going to work. I needed to cut away the headliner, too. (Out comes the saw again.)
Now, after cutting the headliner away, I have a beautiful "bow-rider" Catalina 27. Hey, why not? It would make sail changes much easier! Plus, the kids can ride up front on the hot summer days, and have a nice wet ride to cool off under the waves. (I just need a higher capacity bilge pump.)
As a little background, my wife found our boat last October. She purchased it (off Craig's List) without an inspection, survey or even an educated opinion from anyone that had ever sailed a boat (other than the previous owner). This was to be a "surprise" birthday present for me. According to her, "it looked cute and it was red, so I bought it." Finer boat buying advice could not be had....
So..... Never to walk away from a challenge, my lists of projects and repairs began.
I'm sure many of you are having a good laugh at my expense at this point. Believe me, I've laughed (and cried) about it, too. But just so you know, this re-core project marks the last of my projects from my original list! A friend of mine who knew the previous owner, and knew I had my work cut out for me, recently sailed "Cat 5" with me and was impressed at all how much all my hard work had paid off.
In a future post, I will outline some of the improvements/repairs that have been done. But for now, I thought I would outline my current project.
I knew when I first boarded her that the deck would need to be repaired. It was apparent that someone had attempted a repair job by "drilling and filling" some of the soft areas in the foredeck; to no avail. Also, a few of stanchions on the bow were ripping out. Not good.
Just yesterday, I started cutting into the bow after outlining where the soft spots were on the deck. I did this by going around with a light hammer and tapping, listening for a "pop, pop" or a "THUD". After doing this I was able draw out where I knew I had to cut away.
After using Roto-zip saw to cut away the upper deck, and seeing the mess of de-laminated plywood beneath, I knew that fully committing to this project was the right thing to do. No half-measure solutions were going to fix this problem.
I chiseled away a good portion of the rotted wood, down to the fiberglass. It was then that I realized that Catalina had just laminated the headliner on the bottom of the core, but the headliner is not bonded to the sides of the hull. It only is connected from where it comes down off of the dog house, and again up front toward the bow area; but it is not connected on the sides.
At this point, I realized that my original plan to clean off the wood from the headliner and just build back up from the headliner, well, that wasn't going to work. I needed to cut away the headliner, too. (Out comes the saw again.)
Now, after cutting the headliner away, I have a beautiful "bow-rider" Catalina 27. Hey, why not? It would make sail changes much easier! Plus, the kids can ride up front on the hot summer days, and have a nice wet ride to cool off under the waves. (I just need a higher capacity bilge pump.)