Hand Rail Refurb

[CRichardsDSX]

After doing the necessary repairs to be able to use the boat for the better part of a year - it's time to get down to business and start the project.

Step 1: Refurbish and rebed handrails.

So I set off about removing the port handrail - planning to scrape out any rotted core, fill with epoxy, re-drill, and re-bed. Surprise... interior fiberglass liner! How have people dealt with this in terms of pouring epoxy to replace rotted core? Can I simply drill a larger hole in the liner for access?

Any guidance is appreciated - Thanks!

 

[njlarry]

Not sure what you mean by fiberglass liner surprise? Maine sail has a great tutorial using dremel bits to route out the core.
Last year we refinished ours with signature honey teak. Hoping to get 5 plus years out of it.

 

[CRichardsDSX]

It looks like (and some research seems to confirm) that the O'Day 28' deck has an outer fiberglass laminate, balsa core, inner fiberglass laminate, and an additional interior fiberglass liner. There's about a 1/4" void between the liner and and inner fiberglass laminate.

I imagine I can simply cut a small hole (maybe 3/4" to 1") in the liner to gain adequate access to the inside laminate layer to attach a piece of tape to keep the epoxy filler from running all over in the void.

I was just curious if anyone else had some better ideas form experience. 25yearslater has a good post early on in his project:

http://forums.sailboatowners.com/index.php?threads/and-so-it-begins.123244/#post-756049

 

[Stu Jackson]

Not sure what you mean by fiberglass liner surprise?

I agree. You didn't know you had an inside liner? Just confused here, too.

That said, you need to ONLY seal the top outer side of the cabintop, Keep the water out of the boat. If you have rotted core underneath the outer fiberglass layer, then seal the inner hole, good tape works for this, and epoxy above that, using larry's suggestion to review Maine Sail's site. Don't make the epoxy too runny.