Trawler Juice

I've been looking high and low at different trawlers.** The older ones have teak over plywood. I nearly put my foot through a 34'ers salon the other day.** I was pleased to find the 85 models and newer have fiberglass decks with teak over them.** They seem quite a bit more water proof.* Despite my optimism, a good deal of brown juice was oozing from cracks in the (all glass) flybridge.* I gather that the screws in the teak allow water into the core material.

One boat be sold locally seemed solid enough.* Two* weeks of people walking on the flybridge and it had collapsed.** A simple walk over would not have revealed the rot below.

So, the $4 question is, how do you go about finding a solid Trawler?** So far, it's been pretty discouraging.* I've seen less rot on Bayliners.

Hiya,
** Spend the money, get* a GOOD survey!*** Now I'm not saying get every boat you are intersted in surveyed but when you find what you think is "the* one", go for it.


-- Edited by RT Firefly on Saturday 21st of November 2009 05:53:55 AM

-- Edited by RT Firefly on Saturday 21st of November 2009 05:55:09 AM

A good surveyor will tap the decks with a small hammer. You can find soft / rotted wood that way. The brown juice is a sign of rot, an expensive fix.

I posted this link on another* thread a week or two ago -- in case you didn't see it, here it is again.* Everything you wanted to know about TT's, and a lot you didn't"

http://www.passagemaker.com/Magazin...dArticle/tabid/277/articleId/909/Default.aspx

The TT "cored " crap is usually house plywood with a paint job of glass.

Look at the Gulf-tubs in the size you like , ay least they are glass , not house ply.

FF

Monterey10 wrote:


Despite my optimism, a good deal of brown juice was oozing from cracks in the (all glass) flybridge.* I gather that the screws in the teak allow water into the core material.

Click to expand...

If you're talking about deck planking, what can happen is the seam sealant can pull away from one side or the other (or both) of the seam which allows water to migrate down under the planks.* From there is can find its way down alongside deck screws into the wood core of the subdeck.* If the screws are properly plugged, water won't get down past them from the surface of the deck.* The problem is almost always caused by failing deck seams which are easy enough to repair or replace.

*


-- Edited by Marin on Saturday 21st of November 2009 05:03:27 PM

"a good deal of brown juice was oozing from cracks in the (all glass) flybridge"

If the flybridge is all glass, the juice is not from wood. Conversely, if there is wood juice, it isn't all glass.
Surveyor should be able to tell if the brown stuff is from wood or something else, if you ask the right questions.
Is there teak decking on the flybridge? Doesn't sound like it from your original post, so then what is that stuff? Is it structural? Exactly where is it showing up? Pictures would help.

Stay away from teak decks. They are just something that can(and likely will) go wrong.

-- Edited by Baker on Sunday 22nd of November 2009 06:27:25 AM

The boat with the glass salon roof must have some core material.* The was a crack on on corner and the brown juice was running down the exterior cabin.** I couldn't begin to tell you how the water was getting into the core.* The top was all glass.* No teak to be seen.

Finding a boat with glass decks will be like finding a needle in a haystack.

Ross:* Thanks for the article.

I'll have a look at the GulfStars and Ocean Alexanders.

I found a prospect last year.* A Sunnfjord Tri Cabin.* All glass. Heavy aluminium window frames. Long and narrow like a Down East.* They claimed 3.3 miles per gallon.** It was made by a family up in Tacoma who builds commercial fishing boats (with a good sea keeping reputation)* It got away from me.



-- Edited by Monterey10 on Saturday 21st of November 2009 08:57:14 PM

Californian, Mainship, and Prairie.....American made and no teak decks. Obviously, glass decks as you have said can still have water intrusion and some of the older Mainships suffered from this. But most have been repaired by this point. You can find Taiwanese boats with glass decks. Some people have "de-teaked" them along the way or maybe they came from the builder without them. Many of the newer(1986+) Taiwanese sundeck/motoryachts have very minimal teak.....Marine Trader....CHB/Present....President....just to name a few.

What kind of boat do you want?

-- Edited by Baker on Sunday 22nd of November 2009 06:38:54 AM

You can find Taiwanese boats with glass decks.

The REQUIREMENT is SOLID galss decks , not just std TT boats with out the harmfull teak overcover being called glass decks.

.

It does not matter what the deck/roof are made of as long as they are maintained. They could/will all leak.*

We had sporadic salon roof leak, not teak,*that if boat was trimmed to starboard and or the ran come from the port side it would drip.* Chased the leak for 3 years.* Turned out the water was following the round teak rail, and down the SS tube, down through the screw holes.** The Eagle front deck, 16 X 14 and our stern deck 8 X 14 are teak and for 14 years we have had 0 leaks or problems.* Maintenance, Maintenance and more maintenance.*


*


*

" Maintenance, Maintenance and more maintenance. "

Is the hobby if you chose to make it that.

Sure in HELL isn't my idea of boating fun.

I prefer to be underway , or at least at anchor, to tied dockside 361+.

FF wrote:

You can find Taiwanese boats with glass decks.

The REQUIREMENT is SOLID galss decks , not just std TT boats with out the harmfull teak overcover being called glass decks.

.

Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean by "solid". *But Solid glass is not as strong as a composite sandwich process and I can't think of many boat builders that have solid(nothing but glass and resin) decks. *Actually I did look at one CHB 31 sedan that had SOLID glass decks and they flexed and crackled and crunched because they were not thick/strong enough. *The coreing material adds strenth.....that is why they do it!!!

*

The teak plank decking on most if not all the fiberglass boats that include this feature is there for only two reasons--- appearance and superior traction. The subdeck on boats like Grand Banks, Island Gypsy, etc. is a fiberglass-plywood-fiberglass sandwich. On some boats the planking does add stiffness to the deck, and retaining this stiffness if the teak planking is removed requires extra layers of fiberglass to be added on top of the subdeck. This what the owner of an Island Gypsy on our dock had to do when he removed the teak planking. Other makes or models may have sufficiently stiff fiberglass-ply-fiberglass subdecks to not need additional fiberglass addded if the planks are removed.

But while I'm sure there are examples out there, I'm not aware of a production boat* the size and weight of a recreational trawler-style vessel that has a solid fiberglass deck. It would have to be extremely thick (and heavy) to achieve the same strength and stiffness than can be achieved using a glass-wood-glass sandwich. Some boats, like Carey's lobsterboat, use a balsa core instead of plywood between the upper and lower layers of fiberglass, but regardless of the material used, this cored approach seems to have more benefits that solid glass.



-- Edited by Marin on Wednesday 25th of November 2009 05:33:11 PM

Actually I did look at one CHB 31 sedan that had SOLID glass decks and they flexed and crackled and crunched because they were not thick/strong enough. The coreing material adds strenth.....that is why they do it!!!

GRP is usually strong enough , the hassle is unless properly engineered (stiffners) it is not stiff enough.

All core does is make the deck thicker , which is a simple way to increase stiffness.

Its cheap, if a cheap core like house ply is used ,
damn expensive (but great) if Airex or similar is used.

Solid glass of the same thickness is as stiff as cored of the same thickness , but the weight and therefore builders cost is higher.

The TT were into saving money , even when resin was 35c a pound , before the Kissinger War.

Another reason for ply slathered with glass is the deck or cabin structure can be changed , at almost Zero cost as there is no new mold to create.

And a mold of a flat surface (like cabin sides) takes much more in skills than simply splashing a hull copy.

FF

I will disagree that composite/cored of the same thickness is the same strength as glass. I dunno how to put it into words but maybe some of you engineer types can. A cored structure has differing load paths that adds stiffness.