Oday 25, Damp wood in Cabin Top

[Dwight Thomas]

Has anyone ever drilled into their cabin top to mount something and found that they have damp wood shavings? Last spring I remounted a couple of my life line stancions on my Oday 25 and when I drilled Holes I found the wood shavings that came out were damp?? I think this may be a concern but I'd like to correspond with anyone who has experience this to find out what the scoop is? I don't have any soft spots, but there is some hairline cracks in the Gel-coat.

 

[Steve]

Rebed

everything. A couple of my stanchions were leaking for a while. Pulled all the deck hardware off and rebedded. Followed Don Casey's advise in his book on hull & deck repair to address areas with wet core. Great resource and easy to understand. Covers just about any and all problems encounter with sailboat hull and deck issues. Bought my copy at either Borders or one of the other big book stores. About $20.

 

[gene]

soft spots, define please.

I feel it would be a good idea to check your tabernacle area. Your plywood is rotting. I finally found a 1976 that has a dry deck. I am sealing and then rebedding everything. You need more than rebedding although that also. My wood shavings are all dry except at the chainplates. I dried that area then sealed and rebedded as I did all stanchions, cleats etc. I bet if you took a mallet and sounded your deck you would be shocked. gene

 

[Dwight]

thanks, sounds like good advice

thanks this sounds like a good book for wood-cored sailboat owners. This looks like a good place to start. Did you have to dry out the wood core? I don't seem to have any soft spots, but who knows, did you?

 

[J. Barrett]

I had to recore mine

I have a 1985 Macgregor 25 that had a "damp" core when I bought it a few years ago. I ended up having the entire core of the cabin top replaced over the winter. I could have almost bought another one for what that cost. I'm not saying that you have as big of a problem as I did, but you do need to determine the extent of the rot and fix it. I tried to dry it by heating the cabin after all fittings were removed. It had been too wet for too long. With my boat, everything else was in good shape so, to me at least, it was worth the repair. You can probably get away with some rot for awhile, as long as it is not in an area where a failure could lead to someone getting hurt. Mine was where the mast steps on the deck. No choice for me. I now check and rebed all fittings on a regular basis.

 

[Steve]

I had a couple

of bad areas that had turn to wet pulp. The chain plates are notorius leakers on these boats. The core around the port chain plate and next to my external water fill was bad. Fashioned a small right angle tool to get between the deck and inner hull and removed most of the mush. Filled with West System Epoxy. Redrilled my fastener holes after it cured and reinstalled the filler fitting and chain plate. Won't ever have to worry about water getting to the core at that point again. Casey's book can get you started in the right direction.