Greetings all, I have a '79 O'Day 23 and recently discovered that the deck is soft and has spider web cracks in the area surrounding the port block for the working jib. Does anyone out there in O'Day land have any ideas regarding a repair for this? This water intrusion is bad stuff! I just replace both main bulkheads. Thanks for any help. George
Deck delamination
- Thread starter Gaf
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Standard stuff
Deck delamination repair is fairly standard stuff. It is not complicated, but even a small repair is a real pain. There are lots of examples in the archives of this website, including some I think that posted photos. However, you may be best served by buying one of the many books on boat maintenance that will show you step by step photos of how to: drill holes in the affected area; clean out the ruined core material; remove excess moisture; mix and inject replacement epoxy; affix the deck material together; and repaint the deck. If the area of delamination is too extensive, you may need to completely remove the affected deck area, replace the core material, and reconstruct a new deck over it with fiberglass mat and epoxy. Again, there are books and websites that are devoted to explaining the how-to's of this job in great detail. This is all do it yourself work. The book value of your Oday 23 would be about equal to the cost of having a professional do this kind of work. I have some minor delamination in the fordeck of my Oday 23 that I have not repaired for this very reason. Too much work for too little benefit. One additional complication is that the Oday 23 has an interior liner preventing access to the underside of the deck. In order to remount the jib block, you will have to cut a hole in the interior liner to get at the nuts and bolts.
Deck delamination repair is fairly standard stuff. It is not complicated, but even a small repair is a real pain. There are lots of examples in the archives of this website, including some I think that posted photos. However, you may be best served by buying one of the many books on boat maintenance that will show you step by step photos of how to: drill holes in the affected area; clean out the ruined core material; remove excess moisture; mix and inject replacement epoxy; affix the deck material together; and repaint the deck. If the area of delamination is too extensive, you may need to completely remove the affected deck area, replace the core material, and reconstruct a new deck over it with fiberglass mat and epoxy. Again, there are books and websites that are devoted to explaining the how-to's of this job in great detail. This is all do it yourself work. The book value of your Oday 23 would be about equal to the cost of having a professional do this kind of work. I have some minor delamination in the fordeck of my Oday 23 that I have not repaired for this very reason. Too much work for too little benefit. One additional complication is that the Oday 23 has an interior liner preventing access to the underside of the deck. In order to remount the jib block, you will have to cut a hole in the interior liner to get at the nuts and bolts.
Deck Repair
I've done this...... Drill 1/8" holes around and throughout the area. Inject with "non-expanding" insulation foam (Home Depot or Lowes). after it sets up fill the holes with Marine-Tex or BJ Weld. You can touch-up the "holes" with auto touch-up paint.
I've done this...... Drill 1/8" holes around and throughout the area. Inject with "non-expanding" insulation foam (Home Depot or Lowes). after it sets up fill the holes with Marine-Tex or BJ Weld. You can touch-up the "holes" with auto touch-up paint.
Skeptical about foam
I have heard of others using the insulation foam to fix similar problems and understand that they have met with success. It is certainly a much quicker and cheaper solution than the 'proper' way to do it. I would be interested to know how this repair has held up with time. Simply filling the void between core and deck with foam wouldn't take care of the moisture in the core, which is more than likely the cause of the delamination in the first place. Rot requires air and water intrusion into the core material. This is to say that you might have 'fixed' the problem of a spongy deck, but your core might rot out underneath it! Don casey recommends drilling many small holes and attempting to dry the core out with heat fun, acetone, or dry air. If this works then you simply expoxy the laminate back to the newly dry core, fair the holes and your done. However, many times the core is so waterlogged this doesn't work and you must cut the top 'skin' of fiberglass off and replace the core material. It's up to you, but my personal opinion is that the foam fix is sort of a band-aid approach which doesn't actually address the problem. Again, I haven't done that type of repair (the foam one) and I offer my opinions with full respect to others who have given theirs. Cheers, Josh
I have heard of others using the insulation foam to fix similar problems and understand that they have met with success. It is certainly a much quicker and cheaper solution than the 'proper' way to do it. I would be interested to know how this repair has held up with time. Simply filling the void between core and deck with foam wouldn't take care of the moisture in the core, which is more than likely the cause of the delamination in the first place. Rot requires air and water intrusion into the core material. This is to say that you might have 'fixed' the problem of a spongy deck, but your core might rot out underneath it! Don casey recommends drilling many small holes and attempting to dry the core out with heat fun, acetone, or dry air. If this works then you simply expoxy the laminate back to the newly dry core, fair the holes and your done. However, many times the core is so waterlogged this doesn't work and you must cut the top 'skin' of fiberglass off and replace the core material. It's up to you, but my personal opinion is that the foam fix is sort of a band-aid approach which doesn't actually address the problem. Again, I haven't done that type of repair (the foam one) and I offer my opinions with full respect to others who have given theirs. Cheers, Josh
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