spongy deck

[Tom]

Bought 22 footer at an estate sale. Trailor and outboard are in great shape, and were worth what I paid for the whole thing. The hull is a '78, and the port deck is getting spongy because the previous owner changed the tru-deck mounting bolts for a cabinet and didn't properly seal them, and the forestay was not properly bedded either.I'm trying to decide whether to junk the hull or try to dry out the deck sandwich and get a couple years out of her.Any thoughts?Tom

 

[Ken Corrigan]

Do you enjoy working or sailing

If the boat is a major project to repair you are going to spend a lot of time and money to fix the damage. Do you really want this boat or do you want a project? How much is this boat worth in good condition ? It may not be worth the effort . I would have an expert give you his opinion before starting repairs.

 

[howie]

really not that bad to do

Replacing the core isnt that hard of a job. But it is a job! If you want the seams of your repair to match the original gelcoat goodluck. As far as cutting off the top skin of the deck, removing all the rotted stuff, replacing that and glassing it all back together really isnt too hard.  If the boat only has small areas that need repaired i'd say go for it. A professional opinion is a great place to start!

 

[Mike]

Get a survey

I would suggest consulting a yacht surveyor before getting a repair estimate. Although the horse has already left the barn on if you should buy the boat, a surveyor could tell you how the deck condition will affect the seaworthiness of the boat and if you even need to fix it. My surveyor discovered some deck delamination on my boat before purchase. It was his opinion that if I rebedded the offending deck hardware, the problem would get no worse. It was a relatively small area of minor delamination, and since it is a small boat (23') to be used for coastal cruising, the condition would not affect the intended use of the boat. I never fixed it, and aside from checking once or twice a season to see if the delam is spreading (its not), I don't even think about it.

 

[Paul]

Give it a try....

Hi,Several of the boats in our fleet have had the decks repaired. You could try filling effected area with epoxy and then redrilling the holes through the deck. The old open areas that delaminated will fill at least partially with the epoxy. To start, just remove the hardware, drill out the old holes a little oversized, put some very sticky, duct tape over the hole inside and start injecting some epoxy into the hole from the topside. The epoxy will seep into the surrounding core area. Once filled and hard, redrill your holes. I would then buy some aluminum angle stock at Home Depot and make over sized backing plates to cover as much surface area as possible below. This may give you enough support. If you do need to repair core, cut out the headliner inside, not the deck out side. This si a rather messy job. Not overly difficult, just takes time and patience. From what sounds like a very low purchase price, you probably don't want to pay the costs of a survey. You know what you have.... A lot of boats are out there sailing with soft cores. You just need to be sure the deck hardware is secure and won't pull thru.Good luck,Paul