Most (all?) of the P42’s have a couple of deck holes up near the bow where the jib furling lines passed through the deck to the Hood furling drum which was located beneath the deck level. The holes were cut in the deck and a stainless steel plate was fixed over the spot. By now we have all heard about the potential for water intrusion into the deck from this source.
About 13 years ago I replaced the Hood with a Harken furler and placed the drum above the deck. I can’t remember what, if anything, I was thinking when I squirted some 5200 into the hole in that stainless plate and forgot about it. Probably something about how any leaking water would just go into the anchor locker.
This last year I first noticed some discoloration around the stainless plate there, so I removed the plate last week. Whatever Hunter had done to seal the deck (22 years ago) had now weathered away. What I saw was a bunch of rotten mushy balsa core, and solid water flowing into the deck core.
There was only one thing to do, so I started cutting and grinding away the deck. On my model (1991 model, hull 65) the deck is constructed of a core of ½ inch balsa end grain core sandwiched between two skins of ¼ inch solid fiberglass. I cut back the top skin and scooped out the rotten balsa. Before doing this I drilled a series of inspection holes down through the balsa, and several of them revealed standing water in the deck core.
Fortunately I caught it early. The rot only went back about 4 feet or so, and was only about 3 to 6 inches wide. The photo shows what I cut away. The close-up photo only shows that the part of the deck that is closest to the toerail is tapered, and lacks a balsa core. When I cut down ¼ inch in that spot I cut through the bottom skin and opened the area right over the headliner. If anybody has to do this exercise in the future, be aware of that taper and do not cut so deeply too close to the toerail. (It isn’t necessary since you can scoop out the core from under the top skin from the side of the open hole you cut).
Anyway, all is well now. New core in place, and scarfed fiberglass layered over the top of it, and it looks like new. I just wanted to alert everybody to what COULD happen as a result of those holes (if you ignore them like I did).
About 13 years ago I replaced the Hood with a Harken furler and placed the drum above the deck. I can’t remember what, if anything, I was thinking when I squirted some 5200 into the hole in that stainless plate and forgot about it. Probably something about how any leaking water would just go into the anchor locker.
This last year I first noticed some discoloration around the stainless plate there, so I removed the plate last week. Whatever Hunter had done to seal the deck (22 years ago) had now weathered away. What I saw was a bunch of rotten mushy balsa core, and solid water flowing into the deck core.
There was only one thing to do, so I started cutting and grinding away the deck. On my model (1991 model, hull 65) the deck is constructed of a core of ½ inch balsa end grain core sandwiched between two skins of ¼ inch solid fiberglass. I cut back the top skin and scooped out the rotten balsa. Before doing this I drilled a series of inspection holes down through the balsa, and several of them revealed standing water in the deck core.
Fortunately I caught it early. The rot only went back about 4 feet or so, and was only about 3 to 6 inches wide. The photo shows what I cut away. The close-up photo only shows that the part of the deck that is closest to the toerail is tapered, and lacks a balsa core. When I cut down ¼ inch in that spot I cut through the bottom skin and opened the area right over the headliner. If anybody has to do this exercise in the future, be aware of that taper and do not cut so deeply too close to the toerail. (It isn’t necessary since you can scoop out the core from under the top skin from the side of the open hole you cut).
Anyway, all is well now. New core in place, and scarfed fiberglass layered over the top of it, and it looks like new. I just wanted to alert everybody to what COULD happen as a result of those holes (if you ignore them like I did).
