C27 foredeck re-core

Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
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.)
 
Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
Here are a few pictures to start off:

IMG_1037.jpg

This is picture (while replacing the masthead sheaves) of the deck before surgery began. Doesn't look so bad from way up here, huh?
 
Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
Here are few after the last 24 hours....

Removing the delaminated upper deck

IMG_1045.jpg

Lot's of light in the v-berth now!

IMG_1047.jpg

My new bow-rider!

IMG_1048.jpg
 
Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
I did cut some more away on the upper deck later and began cleaning up the wood underneath the "lip" by the toe-rail.

My plan (plan "D", now), is to re-core with Coosa (sp?) and seal the upper deck with 1708. I will be bonding the coosa to the underside of the fiberglass lip on the sides, and on top of the 2" lip I left of the headliner, just forward of the doghouse. I will also be building a bulkhead (about 12" x 18") just forward of the v-berth to give the core material something to rest on up forward.

I will be using stiffeners on the underside of the coosa both longitudinally and laterally.

Lots of prep work to do to get it ready. Unfortunately I have to leave for my day job tomorrow, and won't be able to tackle this again for about a week. Next week, I will probably only have time to do some more clean up and maybe build out the forward bulkhead.
 
Apr 1, 2010
398
Cal 33 and Sea Pearl 21 . Crystal River, FL
sounds like you have it under control! been there plenty of times myself... not fun... but fun, all at the same time

you probably already know this, but something to keep in mind is that coosa does not hold a screw very well. everything should be through bolted or have a tapped stainless or alum backer plate. again, you probably know this, but just wanted to throw it out.

keep the pics/story coming!!
 
Nov 7, 2012
678
1978 Catalina 30 Wilbur-by-the-Sea
Wow. I recored my cockpit sole last summer but was lucky enough to have a liner still as a base. A nasty business. Keep at it, can't wait to see the finished project.
 
Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
Well I was only able to get about 3 hours of work in before the rain started yesterday. I finished all my cuts, and prepped/sanded everything to get ready for bonding the new core in place. I figure next week I should be able to build up the forward bulkhead and cut/dry-fit the new core. If all goes well, maybe glass it in place.

Here's a few pics from cleaning up the delaminates plywood off the underside of the lip I created to bond the core to.
 

Attachments

Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
Okay. Got a bit more done over the past few days. This, of course, was AFTER, putting up the wife's new kitchen cabinets. (I still have to replace two of the new cabinets; but that's a different story.)

I finished the prep of the bonding surfaces and clean-up. Also went and purchased my core material. I went with the Marine-24 1/2" Coosa. I didn't think the Marine-15 was going to be strong enough for the Foredeck and the "Blue-water 26", while extremely strong, wasn't going to be flexible enough to work with and keep the camber in the deck.

The next question was, "How much?" Since the portion of the deck I cut out was a little over 6' at the beam, my thought was I was going to have to get 2 sheets of 4'x8' (The length was about six feet as well.)

Since I was already going to have a seam about 4' into my new re-core, I started to rethink how I was going to cut this. That, and each sheet of 4x8 1/2" Coosa was about $190!

So I was able to come up with a way to use one sheet, and have a 3rd (much smaller) seam on the last 1' of the starboard side.
 

Attachments

Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
Next came the dry-fit and fine-tuning the boards I had cut with the template.

Getting these to fit the way I wanted took a bit of time. But after I had them in, I was very satisfied that my plan was coming together well.....
 

Attachments

Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
The last picture above is actually after I had secured the forward section with West Epoxy. As it is a bit warm, I definitely had go with 206 Slow Hardener. I was debating to go with 209, but thought I'd try the 206 first.

My first attempt of doing a batch of about 6 pumps of resin and hardener cooked off too fast in the heat. I had to pull the panel back off and clean the mess off and try again. I went with a different method to apply the resin and rather than spread it out (with some 404 thickener), I went with an unthickened batch and just poured into the gap between the lip and the new core. After this, I braced it with 2x4's along the side and another one in the center keep the desired camber.

For good measure, I used (5) 1/2" wood screws to pull the coosa and the old fiberglass lip together.

I let this set and pulled the screws out about an hour later. It worked like a charm. The very front of the deck is sealed up nicely.

Next was dry-fitting the larger portion of the deck in behind that. After a bit of difficult manipulation, I was finally able to get that in place. (Before, I was able to stand in the v-berth and bend the new core as I needed to flex it into position. Now I had to stand ABOVE the deck on the toe-rail, as I couldn't stand on the new core yet.)

Since my plan to use little wedges between the liner and the new core didn't work, and I had to go with 2x4 braces, I had to cut a bunch more of those for the larger portion of the deck.

That is all prepped and ready for tomorrow. I plan to head out to the dock EARLY in the morning before it starts to get too hot. (In the hopes I might get a little more working time with the resin.)

Wish me luck...
 

Attachments

Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
Success! Finished laying the core down and securing in place with west epoxy. Also filled all the gaps. Going to wait until tomorrow so it can cure overnight then sand and glass over the top with some reinforcing strips of fiberglass at the seams and then lay down 1708 biaxial mat over the core itself. The deck feels fairly strong right now with a little but of flex in the center. I'm hoping that after putting down the 1708 and letting that cure for a few days, that it will firm it up a bit. If I need to, I can always put some lateral stiffeners on the underside of the deck. I was planning that originally for the dual purpose of providing additional stiffness and giving me something to mount my headliner to.
 

Attachments

Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
Wow, that's some really nice work. Can't wait to see the finished product.

Thanks! You should have seen what I started with. The first thing I noticed was spongy foredeck. Then the list continued: mast out of tune. Outboard wouldn't start. Transom rotted out. Running rigging in need of replacement. Wired with lamp cord. Companionway doors delaminating. Sails blown out. No instrumentation working. Orange-peel paint. Starboard genoa track ripped out. And on and on...

Here is an original pic after purchase:
 

Attachments

Oct 10, 2014
34
Catalina 27 Tall Rig Norfolk
That was last October.

Since then (and am probably missing a lot, but)

New teak Weatherboard.
New Companionway doors.
All new running rigging to include Dyneema halyards.
New Masthead sheaves.
Re-wired all electric
Re-built transom and motor mount
"New" re-built Yamaha 9.9hp outboard
New custom Nautos genoa tracks both sides.
New genoa cars.
Mounted Garmin 541 moving map in Saloon and built custom bracket.
NMEA 2000 depth finder and speed log/temp gage.
Repaired/filled bulkhead holes where old (broken) instruments were mounted.
Replaced 4 Keel-bolt nuts.
Custom fit teak bilge cover.
Hauled out for 1.5 months for sand-blasting of bottom for fiberglass inspection/repair, barrier coat (4 coats) and MarPro gold ablative (2 coats). Also strip/sand/prime/paint of hull topsides.
New graphics and Reg#'s
New Lewmar 30ST winches.
Mains'l sent to Sail Care for refurbishment and custom graphic.
Tuned mast rig.
LED running lights.
Replaced Masthead light assembly.
Mounted Windex.
Spreader boots.
New fenders and lines
Installed incline-o-meter.

Probably forgetting a few things....

Here's some pics: