been there, done that
Don and Ric are both right, it's a good book to show you a lot of the repairs. Also its a lot of work, not really that hard depending on how you do it but its a chore none the less! Purchase price and general boat condition would be my first priority! A surveyor with a moisture meter is a good start and if the deck is soft and bubbled that means the wood/core underneath is soaked and rotted. An esitamite on an O'Day 37 i looked at with a bubbly deck was around $6000.00 for the yard to repair. And that was for about 70% of the deck charging $60.00 an hour. My 37 has some core damage also and after fixing some I'm gettng a little better at it. Some things to think of when considering the job is: 1.Must be done in weather warm enough for resins to dry 2. Using a circular saw set just deep enough to cut thru the top laminate, follow the non-skid pattern on the outside edge 3. Yards are good at matching gelcoat and can set it back in place (after replacing and bedding new core) 4. Doing it myself I cut on the inside of the nonskid and after replacing the core and top layer i just used a different type of nonskid and covered the cut edge with that. Either way, weather permitting, digging out messy rotted wood, cleaning and cutting to fit replacement wood/laminate....see the point here? It's a lot of work! Easy out, there's a lot of fish in the sea/boats on the market. Goodluck!
