Cut the step off my deck due to rott in the core. Plan on using the gray transom board material for core replacement. Thinking the board should hold the weight of the mast??..
deck step.
- Thread starter Mcksailor
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Can you please explain or show pictures of this what you call grey transom board material??
Thanks
Use traditionnal coring material, i.e. corecell, balsa and if you really can't put your hand on anything else marine plywood sealed in epoxy. Don't use off the hardware store shelf material, it will either not has the shearing strenght needed of glass won't bond to it... Just find a good composite store in your area.
Aluminum Plate?
We replaced our rotted core balsa with an aluminum plate. Definitely compression and corrosion proof, and spreads the load over a broader area.
We replaced our rotted core balsa with an aluminum plate. Definitely compression and corrosion proof, and spreads the load over a broader area.
Deck fix for mast step area
McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com) sell Garelite G-10 sheets for not very much money. This material is excellent in compression, such as for a plate under the mast step. In fact it's the only thing I would use (and did use).
I don't fancy replacing smallish sections of deck core with anything small and blocklike. A block of any material won't be truly knitted to the rest of the deck structure and will, in essence, be ready to punch through the lower (weakest) strata of 'glass. Why people think cutting out the stronger top of the deck to redo cores is beyond me-- they should be cutting out the bottom layer!
Working from above the deck, the better thing is a liquid or viscuous epoxy mix which will flow beyond the perimeter of the affected area, knitting it mechanically as well as chemically to the surrounding structure (the surviving core). This is why the original core was saturated in resin-- it wasn't to help 'glue' the 'glass to it but to make it all integral, as one structure. However poorly this wetting-out was done by the factory to some of our boats, it's nonetheless the theory behind the procedure. Substituting any little block in place of the core material is not truly structurally sound.
Your best fix for this would be to restore the deck core using balsa or 'glass fibers, well-impregnated with epoxy, and then to add a 1/2" plate of G-10 to the finished deck surface on which to mount the mast step. The plate will spread the load and the epoxy mix will restore the deck. All of this can be neatly painted later, using standard products and prep for epoxied surfaces.
Please avoid anything from Lowe's or Home Depot and don't second-guess the importance of this particular area. Doing it right, you fix your boat. Doing it wrong, you just will an inevitable hassle to the next owner (or yourself, later).
The same goes for your compression post; but I won't go into that here (as I have so often elsewhere!).
McMaster-Carr (mcmaster.com) sell Garelite G-10 sheets for not very much money. This material is excellent in compression, such as for a plate under the mast step. In fact it's the only thing I would use (and did use).
I don't fancy replacing smallish sections of deck core with anything small and blocklike. A block of any material won't be truly knitted to the rest of the deck structure and will, in essence, be ready to punch through the lower (weakest) strata of 'glass. Why people think cutting out the stronger top of the deck to redo cores is beyond me-- they should be cutting out the bottom layer!
Working from above the deck, the better thing is a liquid or viscuous epoxy mix which will flow beyond the perimeter of the affected area, knitting it mechanically as well as chemically to the surrounding structure (the surviving core). This is why the original core was saturated in resin-- it wasn't to help 'glue' the 'glass to it but to make it all integral, as one structure. However poorly this wetting-out was done by the factory to some of our boats, it's nonetheless the theory behind the procedure. Substituting any little block in place of the core material is not truly structurally sound.
Your best fix for this would be to restore the deck core using balsa or 'glass fibers, well-impregnated with epoxy, and then to add a 1/2" plate of G-10 to the finished deck surface on which to mount the mast step. The plate will spread the load and the epoxy mix will restore the deck. All of this can be neatly painted later, using standard products and prep for epoxied surfaces.
Please avoid anything from Lowe's or Home Depot and don't second-guess the importance of this particular area. Doing it right, you fix your boat. Doing it wrong, you just will an inevitable hassle to the next owner (or yourself, later).
The same goes for your compression post; but I won't go into that here (as I have so often elsewhere!).
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