Deck Core Under Sea Hood??

[StPeteSailor]

I have a 1988, 35.5 Legend.

Finding a leak at the interior base of my companionway and doing some triage, I decided that the water intrusion must be originating somewhere at the sea hood, possibly where it is screwed into the deck.

Upon removing the hood, I found that the deck area directly under the sea hood had NO CORE. It is clearly hollow between the deck and the cabin liner. Some knocking confirmed that the hollowness extends to just within the reinforcement boundaries of where the sea hood sits. So it seems possible that it was deliberately built this way, because the sea hood is, in fact strong enough to walk on and is very sturdy.

I emailed Hunter and they replied that there are no drawings to reference, but they do not believe that my year/model was built with coring under the sea hood.

Can anyone shed any knowledge on whether this model actually should have a cored deck in that area??

 

[richk]

I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "Sea Hood". Do you mean the continuous line furler and where the line enters the deck fwd port side? I had an 88 Legend 35 with this setup. The PO had recored the area b/c of water intrusion/delamination. When I replaced the furler I sealed the entry.

 

[richk]

Sorry, but re reading your post and I apologize. I recall removing the sea hood near the companionway. I didn't have leaks but am also pretty sure the area wasn't cored. Maybe the water is entering in screw holes? Will sealant prior to rescrewing work?

 

[StPeteSailor]

Well, that is my sincere hope. Planning on re sealing all the holes prior to replacing the screws. I've read several reviews over the years, and leaks from this area leading back to the companionway are a fairly common theme. My concern once I got the thing off was just the lack of coring material between the deck and cabin liner.

 

[Famos_Amos]

I actually removed the sea hood from my 1990 30G yesterday, and can confirm that there is indeed no reinforcement underneath on mine either. The hood itself is built like a tank (read: heavy) but the center of the cabintop underneath is springy. I plan on boring out the screw holes, refilling with thickened epox, and redrilling them when I put the hood back on.