Foredeck core wetness

[Ken]

On My O'day 25, the pulpit stantions were loose & leaking. The fore deck core absorbed water and when I caulked and tightened them up, water came out. I left the bolts off for a few days hoping it would dry out, but to no avail. Question,how can this area dry out since it is sandwiched between two pieces of fiber glass?

 

[Dave]

trust me your core is shot and needs replacing

Unfortunately when wood gets wet and sits for a long time in a dark place it rots. I guarantee your core is all rotted. This is extremely common on boats and the builders should smarten up and not build them like this any more but once they have the sale and the warranty runs out they are off to new suckers. Two methods are recommended to fix this. One is drill a million little holes all over the place in the top laminate until you find dry core. Then mix up some west epoxy (small batches please) and use a west syringe and inject the epoxy into the holes until it oozes out the other holes. Repeat until all the area is filled, let it cure then try to make all the little holes look good.The second option is cut the top laminate off the deck remove it replace the core, rebond the original top laminate to the deck and then try to make it look good where you cut it. No matter what this is a major repair. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but you should fix this right away to keep the boat seaworthy.Good luck,Dave

 

[Justin - O'day Owners' Web]

Core may be ok for the most part

Ken -Before you do anything drastic, check out the extent of the damage. Get someone, surveyor or glass guy, to the boat to determine how far the water has traveled. If water has not penetrated the whole deck, then the whole deck does not need to be replaced.Then discuss their findings with them. You may luck out. I would definitely not start cutting until you know what you're cutting into.There are a lot of ways to deal with wet core. I would start be looking at www.westsystem.comJustin - O'day Owners' Web

 

[Howard Levine]

hull and deck repair

Buy a book, hull and deck repair by Don Casey. It show's things pretty clearly. If theres water squishing out then the wood is rotted and needs to be replaced, there might be a chance of holing and drying it if your lucky. My O'Day 37 has a large amount of wettness in the deck. I'm going to cut out panels just inside the nonskid patterns and dig out and dry out the area's and replace the rotted wood and glass it all back together again. Then instead of worrying about matching gelcoat and seam's i'm going to use treadmaster nonskid to hide the seams i cut and renew the old molded nonskid at the same time.wish me luck! LOL