Delamination of Deck

[Wayne]

I am looking to purchase a mid 80 Catalina 36. She appears to have been meticulously maintained by her single previous owner. I had a survey done yesterday, and found about a two square foot area of deck delamination near the port aft chainplate and another one square foot beneath an area of crazing on the starbord deck (the surveyor thinks something heavy was dropped there). The rest of deck appeard dry and intact.Assuming that water got in through an improperly seated chainplate and through the cracks in the surface on the starbord deck. If I properly reset the chainplates (I plan to do all of them if I complete the purchase) and seal the cracks. What are the chances that I will arrest the delamination where it is and how likely is it that the core will eventually rot.Thanks Wayne

 

[Tom S.]

If you have it properly repaired right now

Then there will be no future problems.But that is the issue, its not really dirt cheap to do this kind of work properly. It'll cost some money, but the good news is if you get it done properly, by a professional, then you shouldn't have to worry about any future problems. But if you don't do it right now, then it will only get worse and cost more to repair in the future. just think about it. If he had done the caulking of the chain plates correctly when the owner had the boat, none of this would have happened.If you really like the boat, then what I would do is have 3 different professionals take a look at the work that needs to be done to fix the problem correctly and then take the average or lowest cost and I would reduce my offering price for the boat by that much. I would let the seller know the reason. (ps, I would have to think this work would cost at least a few grand to get it done right).IF you don't want to do that, you could do what you implied above BUT I would also augment that by using this stuff call "Git Rot". All you do is drill holes in the areas that you suspect as having a wet, rotting core, Dry the wood as best as you possibly can and inject this stuff in there. It infuses itself into the wet core via capilary action and then it hardens to an epoxy and the area becomes a stiff solid peice. Read at the bottom of this link here. Its made by Boatlife Company http://www.boatlife.com/howto.htmCheck the link below from westmarine

 

[Chuck]

If your happy otherwise Buy it

I think that you will find that all older boats have some delamination. It sounds like there is very little on this boat. The question is if you stand on those areas do they flex. If they do then you have some work in front of you. But if not it's not a big deal. We bought our 1983 36 three years ago with some delamination around the anchor locker, unknown how it got there but to this day there is no flexing of the deck. If your happy with rest of the boats survey go for it.