Hunter 34 has a soft spot on the forward deck

[dbfinearts]

On the staboard side of my Hunter 34, 1984, walking on the side of the deck I feel a soft spot about 12 inches in diamater. This spot is roughly a foot infront of the first port window. I was told that I should drill a group of holes around the area and then after letting it dray for a a week or so put epoxy into the holes to stiffen and reattach the deck to the wood core. Any sugggestions? I can't seem to find out wherre the water is coming form. somone said that it is probably coming from the port window a foot away.

 

[Charlie Gruetzner - BeneteauOwners.net]

Soft Spot

It sounds like you have some moisture intusion and that the coring is really wet. Take a small plastic hammer and sound out the area to make sure that you know the full extent of the damage. You can drill the holes and fil them with epoxy but you need a lot more time than a day or so for the coring to dry out. Probably a couple of weeks would be best. If you have power to your boat you can always put a heat lamp on it to quicken the process. Then fill in the holes. This may be sonething you want to tackle right after you pull the boat for the season before it gets to cold. Then you need to find how the water got in there and fix that problem to prevent if from happening again

 

[Sine Nomine]

Soft spot

I just repaired a soft mast step that was collapsing (on an ad-hoc basis) by drilling holes and injecting the step with a product called Git-Rot right on my mooring. I then sealed with a marine rubber silicon. There appears to be no further recession. During the winter I plan to cut the step out and build a new one.