Hi Has anyone ever replaced or repaired the floor on an Oday 22? The floor in my boat is very soft and has some large cracks that I can lift up and look under. Thanks from new owner and sailor. Bill
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C
clay
elective surgery
The cabin sole of the 22 is balsa cored, I believe, just like the decks. I just had to replace the rotten coring on my 1976 22 in a 3-foot by 3-foot section on my cabin roof. The mast step calulking had failed, water leaked in and soaked/rotted the core, causing the mast to compress into the deck. To fix it I sawed around the periphery of the soft spot, pried off the deck skin, scraped out all the mush, let it dry out thoroughly, replaced all the coring with marine plywood of the same thickness as the balsa, and glued the deck skin back on with thickened polyester (I used solid epoxy under the step because of the load). It was a fair amount of work but not technically difficult. I'm pretty sure you're looking at the same problem exactly. If you want more detail about my project I will be happy to provide. Good luck!
The cabin sole of the 22 is balsa cored, I believe, just like the decks. I just had to replace the rotten coring on my 1976 22 in a 3-foot by 3-foot section on my cabin roof. The mast step calulking had failed, water leaked in and soaked/rotted the core, causing the mast to compress into the deck. To fix it I sawed around the periphery of the soft spot, pried off the deck skin, scraped out all the mush, let it dry out thoroughly, replaced all the coring with marine plywood of the same thickness as the balsa, and glued the deck skin back on with thickened polyester (I used solid epoxy under the step because of the load). It was a fair amount of work but not technically difficult. I'm pretty sure you're looking at the same problem exactly. If you want more detail about my project I will be happy to provide. Good luck!
A
Algae
floor -
I had to do some work on the inside of the hull around the keel - this was a major job - and the floor of the cabin had to be removed - it was soft - I replaced it with plywood and attached it with bolts through the bottom of the fiberglass where it goes up to form the births - I am happy with this plywood floor that can be removed - this took alot of time to shape and fasten - the hardest part of this was preserving(not cutting) the hull as I cut the old floor out - If you do this be very careful of this - I used a fein tool (vibrating saw) to cut the fiberglass Algae
I had to do some work on the inside of the hull around the keel - this was a major job - and the floor of the cabin had to be removed - it was soft - I replaced it with plywood and attached it with bolts through the bottom of the fiberglass where it goes up to form the births - I am happy with this plywood floor that can be removed - this took alot of time to shape and fasten - the hardest part of this was preserving(not cutting) the hull as I cut the old floor out - If you do this be very careful of this - I used a fein tool (vibrating saw) to cut the fiberglass Algae
C
Clay
to Dorian
I used epoxy materials just because I had them. This was overkill because compression is the only force we are dealing with in the deck. Any brand of polyester resin that you can get at any hardware store is sufficient for compression. I replaced my rotted core in the general deck area with marine plywood, but under the mast step (where the loads are high) I put in fiberglass mat saturated with resin instead of wood. I think wood core under the mast step is a mistake, because the wood can crush even if it isn't saturated with water and rotten. The deck is sandwich construction with wood between the fiberglass "skins." You can drill some discreet holes to check the wood and thus determine the boundaries of the repair area. I used a vibrating saw (like the Fein described above)and carefully cut out the area just outside of my non-skid, because I didn't want to mess up the pattern. Once I cut all around, I used a pry bar and blocks of wood to carefully lift the deck skin off, as I wanted to reuse it. It was really stuck down! Once I got it off, I scooped and scraped out the rotten balsa, and let it sit for a couple of days to dry out. the old wood was 1/4" thick, so I got some 1/4" marine ply and cut it up into 2" X 3" pieces. Small pieces are necessary to conform to the curve of the deck. I glued each of these down like a giant puzzle with polyurethane construction adhesive (killer strong stuff). I did not put wood in a big area under the mast step location. Instead I fitted several layers of fiberglass mat (felt) to approach the 1/4" thickness and saturated this area with polyester resin. After that set I disk sanded the whole repair area to fair it in. I then made up a big batch of resin, thickened it with Cabosil (a common thickener), smeared it all over the area and quickly reattached the deck (this was after a lot of test fits!) After this set I filled the saw cut area with polyester filler (I used Bondo) and painted the whole deck. This has worked very well. Hope this helps!
I used epoxy materials just because I had them. This was overkill because compression is the only force we are dealing with in the deck. Any brand of polyester resin that you can get at any hardware store is sufficient for compression. I replaced my rotted core in the general deck area with marine plywood, but under the mast step (where the loads are high) I put in fiberglass mat saturated with resin instead of wood. I think wood core under the mast step is a mistake, because the wood can crush even if it isn't saturated with water and rotten. The deck is sandwich construction with wood between the fiberglass "skins." You can drill some discreet holes to check the wood and thus determine the boundaries of the repair area. I used a vibrating saw (like the Fein described above)and carefully cut out the area just outside of my non-skid, because I didn't want to mess up the pattern. Once I cut all around, I used a pry bar and blocks of wood to carefully lift the deck skin off, as I wanted to reuse it. It was really stuck down! Once I got it off, I scooped and scraped out the rotten balsa, and let it sit for a couple of days to dry out. the old wood was 1/4" thick, so I got some 1/4" marine ply and cut it up into 2" X 3" pieces. Small pieces are necessary to conform to the curve of the deck. I glued each of these down like a giant puzzle with polyurethane construction adhesive (killer strong stuff). I did not put wood in a big area under the mast step location. Instead I fitted several layers of fiberglass mat (felt) to approach the 1/4" thickness and saturated this area with polyester resin. After that set I disk sanded the whole repair area to fair it in. I then made up a big batch of resin, thickened it with Cabosil (a common thickener), smeared it all over the area and quickly reattached the deck (this was after a lot of test fits!) After this set I filled the saw cut area with polyester filler (I used Bondo) and painted the whole deck. This has worked very well. Hope this helps!
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