Deck on H37 Legend sounds crackly?

[danstanford]

I went to look at an H37 Legend which nobody had been on board for a month or so. As soon as I stepped on deck I heard a crackling sound which would not repeat when I stepped back on the spot. It happened in several spots on the deck but did not feel spongy anywhere. Has anyone else had this happen and do you have any idea if this is normal? Dan

 

[walmsleyc]

Legend 35 (1987) owner here. Aside from some part of my deck that DO have moisture in them, there is also a section on the starboard side, near the aft end of the genoa track that sounds like you describe.

It is likely some delamination of the glass and the core. Underside is not accessible (due to liner), and it was suggest that I (or someone) could drill various small holes in the area, and try to inject epoxy to try to rebond the layers (then fill the holes with gelcoat).

I imagine that over time, the delamination will progress to some degree, but so far, for me, it had remained confined to a rather small area.

Chris

 

[Brian M H23]

A friend of mine just did a core repair on the deck of his 23. He drilled numerous small holes, used an L shaped hex key to break up the rotten wood core, vacuumed it out, and filled the area with expanding foam!

It seems to have worked rather well, better than relying on epoxy to penetrate wet wood.

 

[RobertG-NJ]

Brian

That sounds awful tedious with lots of holes if you have a big area.
I don't know about the construction of the H37 deck but I can tell you from painful experience the core construction on a H23 side deck. Hunter glued 2" squares of (scrap?) plywood in a parquet fashion. It does not dry out easily if at all. My starboard side deck aft of the chainplates was waterlogged and despite boring 3/4" holes from underneath every 6" it did not dry. I finally decided to replace the core with marine grade plywood from underneath. In retrospect I would/should have done it from the top instead. Though I suspect the chainplates were the original source, leaks from cracks in the gelcoat & glass (cause by delamination or expansion) contributed to the continued wetness.