Deck Repair –Intermediate Damage

[Stu Jackson]

Would it be sensible to enlarge the Deck Drainage Holes and then treat them as one would repair a stanchion hole using the West System "Bonding fasteners and hardware" technique to ensure a good seal with a final touch-up of gelcoat?  I saw that Herb mentioned something similar in Nov 1990 Mainsheet although he suggested embedding a plastic pipe.  Thoughts?

Herb's concept was a "borrow" from the C42 guys.  The idea was to insert a short tube of clear plastic hose right into the hole and have it stick out past the gunwale about 1/2".  The purpose was to have the (dirty) water drain AWAY from the hull to avoid the dirt streaks that do occur without the tubes.

I've found it a lot easier to simply keep the drain pockets clean.  Why add more work when a handy-dandy rag can do?  Every once in a while I clean them up with acetone and wax them with Collinite Fleetwax.

[MarkT]

I solved the leak from the deck drain problem by purchasing some 3/4" fibreglass pipe. Drill out the drain hole to match the diameter of the pipe. Then glue in a piece of pipe just long enough that you can make the outside end pretty with a repair to the gel coat. I used west epoxy to glue the pipe in place. Since doing this my drain works much better is less inclined to get blocked and most importantly I don't have water getting in the boat and damaging stuff. The PO let this problem ruin the shelf in the head area and damage the bulkhead I'm figuring the drain must have had this leak for many years.

I have 3 more drains to do but they don't leak into the boat.

Mark Tamblyn

[Lance Jones]

As I mentioned earlier, I bored out my drain holes to 3/4 inch, sealed with epoxy and then gelcoated. Prior to that, I'd be caught in a Georgia Thunderstorm and I'd get water pooling up on deck and SLOWLY draining out - even in an unobstructed drain. With the 3/4 holes, I look like someone is shooting a hose out of the drains and I get little, if any, pooling of water on deck. If you have a leaky stanchion, this will help reduce leaking due to water pooling on deck.

Why go to the trouble of enlarging the drains, only to return them to nearly their original diameter with fiberglass pipe or hose to prevent staining. I don't have an issue with staining as I keep my deck relatively clean and a scrub Kitty's Cat down regularly with a soft brush and water. That seems to do the trick. Just a thought...

[Steve W10]

Okay guys, here's my progress.

In November I did the excavation and first off... two things surprised me, 1, how thin the plywood core is, ¼ inch max, and 2, how thick the inner liner is, also around ¼ inch; clearly very important structurally.  I know all you more-experienced guys knew that, but I hadn't seen it written anywhere so I thought I'd share with other novices.

What I found was ....

1.   Port Stanchions were awesome, I tried using a bent nail to start the rebedding improvement and the nail was just bouncing off the dry plywood.  In the end I got some small rasp bits for my rotary tool that worked a lot better on the dry wood.  ($4 at Princess Auto for those in Canada). Much like Mainesail has published in the past.

2.   Wet area around the starboard vented stanchion was actually minor compared to expectations.  We did carve out some of the plywood from below (about twice the size of the stanchion footprint), including the very thin fibreglass cloth layer, but luckily all outboard of the inner liner.  The area was large enough that had we attempted it from above I would not have been confident that we'd have gotten all the damp wood.

3.   Unfortunately the stanchion just forward of that one was a bigger deal.  The reason the moisture reading was only 17% was that because of the delamination the meter was reading air, not plywood.  When we started cutting the inner liner we found a very wet deck extending from the stanchion inboard all the way to the middle chainplate.  Working from the "D" shaped cut and from the chainplate hole we excavated all of the wet wood.  As discouraging as this was, I think we managed to get all the bad stuff out and I'm hoping it'll be nice and dry by spring (progress seems excellent so far).  Rather than cutting more of the inner liner we used dental picks and whatever we could to scrape out between layers.  To get all the way in, I fabricated a few tools from some scrap steel and they worked wonderfully.

So what I'm left with is a "D" shaped cut-out of my inner liner and a narrow cavity between deck layers stretching to the chainplate.

Now my thoughts are to do a 2-stage repair in this area...
First, partially do the repair of the D-cutout with multiple applications of fibreglass cloth and resin to add strength and prevent voids; this would also create a dam for the cavity further inboard.
Second, if I inserted a tube of some sort from that D-cutout to the cavity beforehand, it would allow the cavity to be filled from the bottom with a syringe, letting gravity help.  I could also use vacuum bagging if required from the chainplate hole to ensure good fill.
Then of course, finish the repair to the D-cutout.

Am I dreaming again?

Steve

Other follow-up.  Wrt the deck drain holes.  Great advice all around again, and Lance your system sounds terrific with the dowel to keep the bit where you want it.... excellent.