Under the floor

Clark · Aug 10, 2010

Umm, what boat? Your profile says "MacGregor/Venture 25 " but your avatar pic looks like you're in a Hunter daysailer. If it is the former, Hunter can't help.

Clark · Aug 10, 2010

Here's hoping then that other 146/170 owners can help and I can understand if you're a bit touchy. Calling Hunter is a good idea too but they can take a day or so to respond. I've found them to be helpful with my past issues.

Good Luck

txjim · Aug 10, 2010

Qoheleth said:
Does anyone know what is under the floor? Has anyone removed the floor for repairs? I have noticed that my floor is very weak and finally last month, stepped through the floor. I did normal repair with fiberglass cloth and devcon, but wonder if I need to remove the entire floor and replace/rebuild what is underneath. Any suggestions? Or do I need to call Hunter?

I did work on my 170 earlier this summer to repair a motor mount and reinforce the deck on the starboard side (had the same problem as you). The cap is plastic over about 2" of high-density foam. Here's what I did to support the deck:

For the deck:
- Remove skid tape
- using a 4" hole saw, drill holes under the anti-skid area where support is needed. I used supports in 4 places, probably only needed 2 or 3. The plastic material will seperate from the foam backing, keep this for reassembly.
- Form 8" cylinders out of mylar sheets, 12" or so tall (depends where in the deck you are)
- Compress the cylinders and insert in the openings so they stand upright in the holes
- Pour 4 pound 2-part urethane foam into the holes. This will take multiple pours. The foam will be contained in the mylar cylinders and support the deck. Some will expand out of the opening, this is OK
- After setting, trim the foam to match the normal foam core. The plastic disk cut in the second step can be glued back in place
- Replace anti-skid tape over the openings to hide the repair

I have not replaced the anti-skid tape yet, have not been able to establish contact w/ Hunter for a replacement. Plenty of after-market solutions are available, however.

Works VERY well and not as hard to do as one may think. Sorry, should have taken pics. IM me for additional info, I'll shoot you a phone number if you like.

txjim · Aug 11, 2010

Same here but when repairing the motor mount I used an inspection camera to determine why the deck was sagging. Did not see an obvious problem but this did show that the foam supports could be added without affecting ventilation.

I was surprised how easy it was to add this support. I suggest you do a couple trial runs with the foam as it can quickly run out of any openings beween the mylar cylinder base and the hull. I ended up mixing a small amount of the foam and slowly pouring it into the cylinder so it would expand sufficiently to seal any openings allowing the foam mix to escape. Fun stuff to work with!

Got my foam from http://www.uscomposites.com/foam.html. You can see the different densities, I used the 4 pound foam as this was a compression application.

The deck needed to be lifted in a couple of the areas where support was required. To do this, used a 3/4 X 3/4 piece of wood under the deck and a 2X4 resting on the gunnels. Tied a length of rope between the two and twisted the rope to raise the deck as required. I made no attempt to remove the 3/4" piece (it's now sealed by the foam) and cut the rope level with the trimmed support column.

If I had time, I would have added 2-3 supports to the port side just to make sure I'd never have the same problem. Probably a job for this winter.

Under the floor

David Hall22685

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Clark

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David Hall22685

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Clark

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txjim

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David Hall22685

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txjim

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