That sinking feelin'..trouble with compression post

Joe11688 · Feb 27, 2009

Ed K.
You may be able to answer this for him. It may be worth your while to call Rudy tomorrow and ask him, Keith. Here's his site;
http://www.drmarine.com/
Joe

Scott On Eagles Wings · Feb 27, 2009

Keith,
I have an O'Day 23 so my advice to you is not apples to apples but it may help. I saw your pictures under trailer sailers and I had simmilar problems with water leaks. I did not have deck compression and my sole was not sucken.

My

Scott On Eagles Wings · Feb 27, 2009

Keith,
I have an O'Day 23 so my advice to you is not apples to apples but it may help. I saw your pictures under trailer sailers and I had simmilar problems with water leaks. I did not have deck compression and my sole was not sunken.

My deck was cracked just like yours. I simply covered it with fiberglass cloth and resin, sanded it and painted it along with the entire deck. It does not match the non skit areas of the deck in tecture but nobody has ever noticed the repair.

Second I took out my bulkheads one at a time and restored them. I had rotten areas along the bottom like yours. Over the course of a few weeks I treated the edges with penetrating epoxy than a few coats of varnish and I reinstalled them using fender washers and several additional screws and bolts. I will try to take some pictures of them this weekend and post them for you.

My compression post was simply screwed to the bulkhead panel, as per the advice of others on this site I gently jacked the cabin top up about 3/16 of an inch and I was able to get the bulkhead out very easily. At that point you can decide to restore it or use it as a patern to make a new one.

As far as what supports the sole below the compression post, I truly do not know exactly what is in there. If I lift my bilge plate and look forward I can see some crudely laided fiberglass covering something. Sorry I can't help you any more with that. I will try to poke the camera in there for you also.

Just rember the advice of I think Sailing Dog. Start from the bottom and work your way up. A good house starts with a good foundation. Just look at it as several different jobs not one big one. Take on the sinking sole and bulkhead first than move up on deck. Good Luck

Shoaldrafter · Feb 28, 2009

Keith:

I have an O'Day 26. I do not have pictures. There are two guys on this forum who have gutted the 26 and completely rebuilt interiors. They have pictures.

However, I have partially rebuilt my boat and have had the compression post out. First you need mast off. Then I used a combination hydraulic jack and post to sit jack on to raise cabin roof sufficent to slide post out.

Ooops, first you need to disconnect the cabin roof from bulkheads on both sides. I also removed molding and connections and chain plates bracks from both sides. You have to remove four bolts that hold mast tabernacle in place. Then you can take post out. I repaired and repainted my post while it was out. It had nominal water damage along one lower edge. I used epoxy to repair small damaged area along bottom of post and port bulkhead.

In my opinion repair and not replacement was sufficient. However, on this forum and locally I have seen that on the O'Day 25 which has the exact same bulkheads, the bulkheads need replacement. Very common issue due to water damage on boats this old. Use old bulkheads and post as templates for making new.

All this said, I can see what is under my post with a flashlight by looking in storage compartments under seats. Just take a good flashlight or even ac spotlight and look. I have run a wire down from front storage under V-berth to starboard storage to behind cabin wall to under cockpit. No major obsticles for running wire, just some curves.

My boat has fiberglass support under compression post as part of hull that spot. That is fiberglass to support and distribute load. So, your floor should not flex at the post location. If it does then after you look you can tell us what you are seeing.

Delamination is only thing I can suspect. My boat had no delamination of fiberglass, just some edge damage to post and bulkheads. I repaired the same as Scott, but depending on amount of damage you may have to replace. That means you will have to cut glass tabs that attach bulkhead to hull. Just direct a question to Appleman about that or look at his posts from the past in the archives. He had good pictures. And there was another who did the same thing with a 26, but cannot recall his name.

Ed K
'85 O'Day 26

Shoaldrafter · Mar 1, 2009

Keith,

Does your boat have cushions on the setees? Have you looked under cushions? You should find cut outs that have plywood covers to keep cushions level. Lift cushions on both sides and place in quarter berth. Lift wood covers on both sides and place out of way. Take spot light or good flashlight like big mag lite and put in storage areas, turn light on and stick head in till head touches hull. Face aft and look up in mid line corner. On my boat on the starboard side at that small gap you can see almost all the way back to V-berth bulkhead.

I have seen my configuration on an O'Day 25. That is the O'Day 25 was made the same way.

However, for those of us messing around with the 25's and 26's, have found that all boats were not made from the same molds. There were three plants making the 25. Maybe there were also more than one plant making the 26. Or the 26 was assembled in more than one plant and each plant had its own way of assembly. And assembly changes from one boat to another of the same model in the same plant.

On my boat on the starboard side you can see back with a flashlight in the corner. It is not an easy view. It takes rubber necking. Try again on starboard side. Also put another flashlight on the hole that you drilled to see it you can see the spot.

The next time I go to my boat (which is on trailer in storage), I will look again. I am doing this from memory. But I had no serious trouble fishing a wire for transducer thru this area on the starboard side.

Ed K
26

appleman · Mar 2, 2009

emergpa, got your note just as we were going out the door on a ski trip for several days. If I stay at a place I can hook up my laptop, I will post some pictures, otherwise sometime Friday. We are now getting the snoqwstorm that hit you yesterday. Eee-ha! Rick

Shoaldrafter · Mar 4, 2009

The decision to repair or replace is yours to make. My comments offer no warrenties or guarentees. Just comments.

I would get several opinions and weigh all information.

I think that it can be repaired. First is you have to kill the mildew/mold in the wood. In the process of doing so, you will ruin the stain of adjacent areas. If you leave mildew/mold in wood it will continue to damage adjacent areas.

There are a products for getting rid of mildew. Remember you have to get beyond the surface. Old fashion bleach works but is alleged to damage cellulose structure. Painters us wood bleach which is not bleach but oxalic acid to kill mildew. There are other products, I leave it to you to search them out.

After mildew removed, there are several products that penetrate into the wood stucture such as 'Get Rot' and 'Rot Doctor'. These are essentially thin epoxy which is drawn into the cellulos stucture. These products have web sites which you should find and study. An example web site is: http://www.rotdoctor.com/

These products are epoxy and as such have a degree of strength. There are other products out there in the home repair and paint departments which are not epoxy based but do penetrate into wood. I recommend for your purposes to stick with epoxy because of its known strength and track record.

When trying to get penetrating epoxy into the wood, many small drill holes will get more into the inner parts of the wood structure. These holes will initially fill then the epoxy is absorbed into adjacent areas. Refill unit they stay filled.

Some repair people use regular epoxy with 10% epoxy thinner to achieve the results of thin epoxy. Keep in mind there are formulated thin epoxies designed thin from the get go.

I would study the West System Web Site and maybe get their book(s) on epoxy repair. There are other good books, articles and web sites that provide good instruction. See: http://www.epoxyworks.com/

Unfortunately products such as 'Get Rot', et al are sold in dinky quanities. There is at least one outfit that will sell thin (read penetrating) epoxy by the quart. That is a funky web site company: http://www.epoxyproducts.com/

I have used their 155 Formula and it does the same job as penetrating epoxy. They also sell a cleaner formula 661 which I highly recommend anytime you are working with epoxies.

While they sell specific tints there are other companies that sell pigments that will work with epoxies. Remember that epoxy will not stain like wood. So the areas that you epoxy and want to eventually look like wood will have to be tinted from the get go. Then the adjacent areas with real wood can be stained.

Good luck if you try the above. If you plan to race, you put a lot of stress on the chain plates and should consider new solid bulkheads to sustain the loads.

Also on the 26 the area under the chain plate coverss is probably destroyed and you need to fill voids with epoxy to restore strength to that area. That is a whole other project that must be done whichever approach you take.

Ed K
26

Joe11688 · Mar 4, 2009

I just want to point out that I never had rot in my bulkhead or any of the problems that you need to address, but I do have the same chain plates on my O'Day 222 as you have on your 26. What I did was beef up my main bulkhead with oak, and had stainless steel plates made up and welded to my chain plates to keep out moisture. The oak is bolted to the settees, and each of my welded chain plate covers is bolted through the deck with backup plates in the cabin.
Joe

That sinking feelin'..trouble with compression post

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