flex in bow

[Jay Elliott]

My father and I are working on a Hunter 25 (1974 or 76 I think). There is some flexing on the bow just over the v-berth and we were wanting to put up a wood arch to help support it. Is this flex normal or is the core damaged? If the core is damaged how can we fix it?

 

[Gerard]

might be wet

It sounds as if the core might be wet. Drill a small hole and give it a sqeeze to see if any water seeps out. If a core gets wet, it won't dry. The fix will depend on how extensive the damage is. Good luck.

 

[David]

wet deck?

You might try non-destructive testing with a moisture meter. If moisture is detected, sounding with a hammer will give you the extent of the damage.

 

[David Foster]

Fix it, or it will spread

across the whole deck.The fix is described in the archives. Basically, you open the fiberglass deck surface, route out rotten wood until you get to clean, good wood all around.Then you replace the wood with epoxy (for a small area) or wood (for a large surface) grind a taper on the fiberglass covering the good wood, replace the fibergalss top layer matching the taper, and refinish the surface to match the rest as best you can.I'm redoing the mast step (more complicated, as there are several layers) right now.Aside from stopping the rot, really fixing the problem like this will give you a good stiff deck to walk on, instead of a mushy deck that will bend around your arch inside.DavidLady Lillie