(Old) Teak deck fasteners

[jwag956]

We are looking at a 1977 GB Classic - all the boats we have seen in that age range have many many plugs missing. In this case - the prior owners have apparently removed the old screws and epoxied in new stainless steel screws, and not put in any plugs (presumably because the teak is not longer thick enough. I can't be sure they are using epoxy - that's just what the broker said

Picture attached.

Thoughts?

 

[Comodave]

That would concern me. What is the condition of the boat overall? If you buy it go into the deal expecting to rip the teak off and reglass the decks. If you don’t have to then great, but I would build into the price the cost of new decks. And it most likely will entail new core.

 

[koliver]

Your pre purchase survey will tell you if the decks are solid or not, if you ask your surveyor to make sure.

When screw heads are visible, the suspicion is always that water wicks down the screw into the core material beneath the top layer of fibreglass, allowing the core to deteriorate and delamination to occur.

If I ever have a screw head show, which can happen in traffic areas when the thickness of the plank is worn down below the bottom of the plug, I pull the screw and fill the hole with a new plug, pushed as far down as possible. The screw was originally there to hold the plank in place while the polysulphide or other glue set up. Once that occurred, within a week of the laying down of the deck, the screw has no further useful reason to be retained, but removal will wait until there is a good reason to do so.

Nowadays no screws are used in teak deck construction, for just the reasons above.

 

[jwag956]

Thanks koliver - would that be true of a boat of this era - 1977 - that in fact the decks were glued down?

 

[Comodave]

Generally they didn’t start completely glueing decks down until the 90s.

 

[NorthLights]

Thanks koliver - would that be true of a boat of this era - 1977 - that in fact the decks were glued down?

I am going through removing the decks on our 1983 IG right now and they looked in very similar condition to your photos. We had exposed screw heads, cracks in bead and then the driving factor for removing it, we had leaks into the cabin.

We did also find a significant amount of glue holding the teak down (to the point of making removal more difficult).

 

[koliver]

Thanks koliver - would that be true of a boat of this era - 1977 - that in fact the decks were glued down?

My first boat was built in 1977. I had a hand in it, so learned what was being used to a small extent. That is why I suggested the use of polysulphide, as that was what was used on my own boat. State of the art at that time?

The pictures above, by NorthLights, demonstrate that by 83, the evolution of technology to not using screws had not started.

Only wooden boats would have not used glue as the primary bond, as there the primary fastening was to wooden frames, not to a flat surface. When fastening to frames, the screws would have been longer. To a flat fibreglass surface the only reason for the screws was to keep the boards from sliding around before the glue set up and formed its own solid bond. After the glue to the flat surface was set up, the grooves between the boards were filled with black, rubbery stuff, then when set up that was sanded down to reveal the teak boards. Modern teak decks use a better rubbery glue in both holding the boards down and filling the grooves.

When I had a quote on redoing some decks on my present boat, about 20 years ago, the method was to use a template, fasten the boards together with the black rubbery stuff, in the shop, then bring the panels thus created to the boat and glue them down, then add margin boards. No screws.