Soft Spot

[c14_rocky]

I purchased a used c-14 recently (2001). I found water in the hull after the purchase! I just discovered a soft spot approx. 4-6 inches in diameter on the deck/floor approx. 2 feet from the cockpit hatch. Also, I have some stress cracks on the seats by the hull. Could these be related?
Can the soft spot be reinforced by applying fiberglass over the top? I plan to use marine tex on the stress cracks. Is this likely to work.

 

[JGM]

Hi Rocky,
Welcome aboard!

It's hard for me to say whether the water is part of your troubles, or not. For instance, except for when I turtled my C-14, my hull has always been dry. But there is one spot on the starboard back rest where you can see a bubble about 5" in diameter. If you push on it, it gives more than the surrounding areas. Obviously this is some sort of de-lamination defect from the factory. I would fix it except there really isn't any need.

The floor in my boat flexes slightly in the same area. In your case, assuming there really is a problem and you are worried about stepping through the spot, a fix is probably necessary. But there may be alternatives to dumping epoxy over the spot.

In the first scenario, there is a de-lamination between layers of fiberglass. If so, you might be able to fix the problem by drilling a couple small holes through the first layer and injecting enough epoxy to re-bond the de-lamination. Unless you're really good at patching with epoxy or polyester resin, a couple small holes will look much better than a patch.

The second scenario assumes there is wood under the fiberglass. I've had my boat for only a year and have seen absolutely no wood whatsoever anywhere. I value that innocence. If my C-14 is embedded with lots of wood, I don't want to know it!

But assuming there is some sort of rotting /separated wood under your floor, you can do the same drilling routine but you have to drill completely through the fiberglass and partly into the wood. Since no adhesive sticks well to wet wood, you need to dry the wood first. This involves drilling more than two holes and waiting perhaps weeks for the wood to dry out. You want to dry that wood anyway assuming it isn't rotten.

Word of caution: be careful drilling these holes lest you go through the hull!

Once the epoxy has cured and you are satisfied the floor is strong enough, you can touch up the holes with a gel coat repair kit. The same kit would be my first choice for repairing any hairline cracks, but my experience trying to fix such cracks has proved to make them more visible and not any stronger. I'm not touching the cracks on my boat.

The exception, of course, is when such cracks might compromise the strength of hardware, etc. Can you flex your cracks open without much effort? If not, I would leave them alone.

Jim