Our boat deck has been removed.

Made the turn from removing to prepping for new decking today. Feels good. Hope to be installing new plywood this coming weekend.

Well, good luck with the rebuild. Ambitious project. Keep us up to date please.

Always feels better when the cancer is cut out.
Doing our decks a 4ft x2ft section at a time while living aboard and without the luxury of a shed.
Getting there, slowly but surely.
Have fun.

Simi 60 said:

Always feels better when the cancer is cut out.
Doing our decks a 4ft x2ft section at a time while living aboard and without the luxury of a shed.
Getting there, slowly but surely.
Have fun.

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It sure does. We would've preferred to remove/replace in sections but after pulling up the teak and glass and seeing the previous "repairs" we made the decision to just replace it all at once. Should make glassing, fairing and finishing easier with a better end result.

The covered moorage and living on land certainly make this easier. I'm picking away at it on nights and weekends but think an experienced crew could easily replace the deck in a week. I'm much slower because I'm considering every step.

You are one courageous and adventurous individual.

Undertaking projects like this make me hesitate. It literally is a can of worms that has no solution other than to bow your head and charge. Of course, having covered storage helps, but it’s still no less than tearing apart your boat. Please keep us informed. If we want to save our ageing vessels, lots of us will eventually face the challenge. Best of luck.

Nice job. Now you have a clean canvas to work with and the framing looks to be in really good shape. I just did a water tank project on mine that I wish I would've dove in and did it the way it really needed to be done, but I just didn't have it in me. Your're making great progress. Thanks for posting.

What made you decide to remove/replace the lower glass skin?

Good for you. Please provide plenty of pics.

Is that a heavily trafficked deck? Just trying to visualize what might be under mine for the supporting skeleton.

What are you using for materials? Plywood type and thickness? Fasteners? Glass type? Resin type? Fairing material? Paint or gelcoat or other finish?

An inspiring project! Thanks.

Wow, Steve- talk about jumping in with both feet!

healhustler said:

Undertaking projects like this make me hesitate. It literally is a can of worms that has no solution other than to bow your head and charge. Of course, having covered storage helps, but it’s still no less than tearing apart your boat. Please keep us informed. If we want to save our ageing vessels, lots of us will eventually face the challenge. Best of luck.

Click to expand...

You're right about that! I found a little delamination in the back of the pilot house where it's joined to the boat deck so I found myself considering playing the "now or later?" game. I will likely be later as I'd like to re-bed the windows at the same time. Gotta keep the projects as phases with lots of boating in-between!

Pack Mule said:

Nice job. Now you have a clean canvas to work with and the framing looks to be in really good shape. I just did a water tank project on mine that I wish I would've dove in and did it the way it really needed to be done, but I just didn't have it in me. Your're making great progress. Thanks for posting.

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Yes, very fortunate the framing is in decent shape. Sawn mahogany has it's advantages. I do need to deal with two small sections where someone forgot to beed the stanchions. I'll likely repair with epoxy as I'm not concerned about pullout.

Aquabelle said:

What made you decide to remove/replace the lower glass skin?

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The way these Bluewater Yachts were built was 23/32 marine ply on sawn mahogany frames with a layer of chopped strand on top. We also had the optional teak deck on top of the glass.

So, no lower glass in the sandwich.

CptnPete said:

Good for you. Please provide plenty of pics.

Is that a heavily trafficked deck? Just trying to visualize what might be under mine for the supporting skeleton.

What are you using for materials? Plywood type and thickness? Fasteners? Glass type? Resin type? Fairing material? Paint or gelcoat or other finish?

An inspiring project! Thanks.

Click to expand...

Thanks?!

Yes, this is the boat deck and really the main outdoor space for us. We're up there, the dinghy is up there, the dining table is up there, etc.

Replacing with 3/4" marine ply (six sheets). We'll route finger joints between the sheets, join with epoxy and epoxy the ends. Fasters will be SS screws, likely square drive but I'll need to consult with the folks at Fisheries. One of the more impressive things about deconstruction was removing hundreds of perfectly preserved SS screws.

I may need to cut longitudinal kerfs on the underside to facility the curve. We'll run some tests and see if we can get the bend we need. I don't want to put unnecessary pressure on unsupported frame spans.

After that it'll be sanded and filled then wetted out well (avoiding the original issues) likely using chopped strand followed by mat. Again, I need to consult on that one.

Open to suggestions.

Pau Hana said:

Wow, Steve- talk about jumping in with both feet!

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Thanks Pete. Don't tell anyone I know how to do this stuff

Dang, Fort. Now that I see this is open at the bottom, is the plan to fit the plywood and then finish it before laying it down? How committed are you to the chopped mat? I admire ya, Boy.

No commitment made to the glass yet. Yes, we'll fit the plywood, glue and screw to the fames, then fill, wet out and glass.

I have had good luck with 1708 and epoxy but for much smaller projects. Easy to work with and strong. Might need fairing before final paint or gelcoat.

As to CSM - it seems it apparently doesn't work as well with epoxy as it does with polyester or vinylester resins:

Airstream345 said:

No commitment made to the glass yet. Yes, we'll fit the plywood, glue and screw to the fames, then fill, wet out and glass.

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What about the frames themselves ? Are they in good condition or would they benefit from also being (re) epoxy sealed?

Greetings,
Mr. CP. I knew that there was a specific glass for epoxy but never knew the reason. Meaning one can use any glass for poly but only one type for epoxy. Thanks very much.

Typically you don’t want to use epoxy with mat because of the styrene binders that hold the mat together. Epoxy doesn’t wet out through the styrene properly. Use cloth with epoxy unless it is something like 1708 that has 2 layers of cloth with a mat sewn on. Then the mat will wet out because they don’t use styrene as a binder but rather sew the mat onto the cloth layers.

Today I started cutting and dry fitting the new plywood. Off to a good start. Really motivating!

Looking good so far.

Did you end up having to kerf-cut into the underside of the ply to get it to conform to the camber of the frames?

Aquabelle said:

Did you end up having to kerf-cut into the underside of the ply to get it to conform to the camber of the frames?

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I think it’ll take the curve without kerf cuts. I need to support the frames so they hold their shape as I glue and screw the sheets to them.

Double bias around 440gsm has always been my favourite glass.
Loves epoxy, wets out easy, goes around corners easy, generally a pleasure to use.

Thanks Simi 60. I'm thinking I'll put down layer(s) of CSM then woven cloth.

Didn't make any progress the last two days due to YC volunteering and the wx so I've been researching the upcoming steps.

Agree on using polyester resin. Found this on Fisheries website:

When building fiberglass structures using polyester resins, and where impact resistance is important, alternating layers of chopped strand mat and woven fiberglass cloth or roving will result in a stronger structure than using layers of woven cloth alone - which can delaminate under impact.

In this situation, the layers of mat bond to the woven cloth fabric better than the cloth does to itself.

As above, when using epoxy resins, only woven fabrics should be used for the strongest results.

When covering wooden structures - such as a wooden boat - with a layer of fiberglass cloth using polyester resins, you should not apply the woven cloth directly to the wood. Always start with a layer of lightweight mat - which acts as a binder between the wood and the woven fabric.

When cloth fabric is applied directly to wood, it can readily delaminate, whereas if mat is applied first, often the wood will fail before the mat can be peeled off.

Again, when using epoxy resins, cloth can be applied directly to the wood and result in a strong, permanent, bond.

I'll be filling some gaps in the frames with West Systems 610 and using Gel Magic two part adhesive epoxy to bond the ply to the frames.

With such a large surface area to cover the key will be working time and my ability to wet out well.

I like using 1708 which is a biaxial cloth with a mat layer on one side. You don’t have the large gaps like with woven roving that fill up with resin.

"In this situation, the layers of mat bond to the woven cloth fabric better than the cloth does to itself."

This true, BUT for best results the lamination should be built up in one day.

"With such a large surface area to cover the key will be working time and my ability to wet out well."

A 7 inch roller with a fence painting roller cover (3/4inch thick) will put a lot of resin on very rapidly. Have a helper follow with a steel roller after the wet out to help the glass not float. .

Cabin sides covering is usually large and thin so the heat of curing wont be a bother.

Looking good