Images from Pete Whittier and Tom Young

[David]

Hello all. One of the shortcomings of this site is the inability to upload images. However, I can accommodate that (at a snails pace) by hosting those images outside of the forum.

Some have sent me photos of their boats. I've posted those images at the following location: http://reno2.com/alden/images/949/

David

 

[TomY]

Nice to see the photos of Whits boat and work he has done.

This is such a valuable resource for a Challenger owner that David Reno has taken on. The message board is enough work I'm sure with the boat project he has ongoing. I have photos of many aspects of work on my boat and would be glad to e-mail any that may help someone.

Thanks David.

 

[Whit]

Pictures explained

The pictures of the underside of the deck show how I have attempted to strengthen the weak deck. I made up a sheet of glass on an old sliding glass door. I built braces to hold the deck in its original position. I then glassed the strips to the original plywood stringers. This has stiffened the deck considerably. Oh yeah, alot of grinding had to be done to clean up the surfaces for a good bond. A very ugly job to complete, but it seems to have worked.
A couple of pics show how I replaced the toe rail. I made measurements on the deck, removed old wood & hardware, filled all the holes, glassed and primed the edge of the deck. Cutting the new rail was a bit of a challange as the angles change along the length of the hull. Nothing like new teak to dress up the old lady! The original rails had been damaged and repaired poorly & leaked badly.

 

[David]

I'm not sure that I understand. Did you remove the plywood supports and replace them with fiberglass ones or strengthen the existing plywood supports?

 

[Whit]

Deck Repair

I fastened the glass strips to the original plywood using stainless screws and then glassed everything together and to the underside of the deck.

 

[David]

So I take it that you found the plywood to be in good condition? I would have guessed that the plywood may not have held up so well, being open from below to moisture.

I've been thinking on this topic a bit. I thought that some reinforcing from below would be warrented, though I was leaning towards filling the voids with a foam core and glassing them over, or even removing the honeycomb supports (due the their depth) and replacing with a thinner core/glass layer to produce more typical sandwich construction. Finally, I know that I will eventually want to put a teak deck on the boat. I would imagine the teak would tremendously stiffen the deck (acting as a core). Since the glass (original deck) would then be below the teak (core) I would think it as good as a full sandwich deck.

Has anyone else thought of putting teak decks on their boat?

David

 

[Whit]

Deck

In my case, the honeycomb had broken at the intersections of the plywood stringers (mid deck) causing a lot of flex and in some areas sagging. I don’t believe that adding a teak deck, with out strengthening the supporting deck, would solve your problems. Tom suggested wood deck joists, which would probably be the easiest method. I was in the "glassing mode" after repairing the chain plates and this worked well for me.