| Recoring the foredeck |
One day I just couldn't take it any more. Clearly the deck was a major problem, but I was reluctant to cut off the whole deck only to find I was cutting out solid core. Out came the hole saw and the next thing I knew the deck looked like swiss cheese. I was delighted that the wet areas did not extend as far as I thought they did.
With the panel saw, it was just a matter of connecting the "dots". What I found beneath was a bit disconcerting. The area under the bow cleat (center) went straight through to the cabin liner.
There were also several very large voids in the deck lay-up. They appear to be from large air bubbles with only a few remnants of fiberglass cloth on top. The voids were filled with thickened epoxy to try to create a solid, level surface for the new deck core.
After many layers of glass and almost an entire gallon
of West System epoxy, the deck is faired and coated with two coats of
epoxy ready for priming.
The recess down the center of the deck more than doubled the time to complete the recore and lamination. It's not perfect, but it should look respectable once painted.
The solid epoxy/glass combination for the deck cleat should prevent any future disasters.
The top layer of glass was significantly thicker in this area than in any other I had to remove.
