Splitting the deck on a newer hull

Dion_Dunn

Member
I’m going to attempt to restore a newer rolled edge style Sunfish. The hull has seen better days and needs several cracks and dings repaired. However, the hull is one of the lightest I’ve ever felt, almost like it’s missing it’s foam block guts.

So I started cleaning up the hull from what looked like 10 years of mold and dirt this afternoon and sure enough, the deck is really soft. So a friend and I picked it up and rocked it back and forth. It sounds like all 3 of the front blocks have come lose. There are no inspection ports and the hull has not been split yet.

So, how difficult is it going to be to split this hull with the new rolled edge? Find the seam and use a knife or dremel tool similar to the older style edge, or a different technique?

Pic from after scrubbing the top.
 

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You may be on the cutting edge of later model Sunfish repair. Post pictures of your attempts as many will undoubtedly rely on your pioneering techniques. Even a patient left dead on the table can be a leaning experience.
 
You may be on the cutting edge of later model Sunfish repair. Post pictures of your attempts as many will undoubtedly rely on your pioneering techniques. Even a patient left dead on the table can be a leaning experience.
Especially if the patient had been a obese one! ;)
 
You should probably put in a port to look around to be sure the deck needs to come off.

On old boats it looks easy to bend the deck back for access once the seam is split. The rolled edges on this boat may act as structure to make it hard to bend the deck. Good luck!
 
I may try the access port first as suggested. But I also hate to cut holes in a boat that is so dry to begin with. It’s such a strange situation!

The front has had some impact damage which may have caused the blocks to come lose to begin with. Maybe the thing was picked up by a wind storm or something. I can see the seam but can’t tell if it is accessible like the older style deck, or if it just damage. I’m going to bring it home this afternoon to inspect it in the garage and see what needs to be done. I’ll take more pics.
 
I agree on deck mounted access ports, but they seem to be a fact of life in the Sunfish world. That said, I've added side coaming cam cleats, stand up halyard block at the mast base, and some other non-typical stuff instead. I also have front and rear cockpit wall inspection ports (on a non cockpit cubby fish) for adding a hiking strap and key storage etc. I just don't think the deck plates look like "hardware" and unlike most sailors (I think?), I personally don't like the look of them...maybe stemming that you normally don't see a $10 deck plate on nicer yachts...theyre usually out of sight in a locker or under a cushion,,,,but we've had this conversation before. :)
 
Ok, more pics and thoughts.

The rear end is solid and looks fine. The very front foam block seems fine, it’s the two long ones in the middle that are dislodged. The chines have some missing gel coat with resin repair already done, but nothing that can’t be made to look better. See pics

The front end is the worse with multiple holes and damage that needs to be repaired. But again, been there done that on my current boat. On the one pic you can see where the damage has exposed the seem, and beyond where the two pieces meet it doesn’t seem like a lot of epoxy was used around the curved edge because I can separate the seem easily with my fingers. (Circled in the pic)

So, try the can opener method or just install an inspection port?
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Gads, with the shape it's in you have nothing to lose trying to get the deck loose. The
bow looks like a good candidate to be removed and have a replacement molded from
another Sunfish. The missing part of the top deck definitely needs a replacement
molded from another fish if you are going for a nice seamless looking repair. Break
out the Can Opener, open a can of Spinich and let her rip.
 
Meh, I’ve fixed worse front ends.

Can opener worked using a putty knife and utility knife. This is what I found. The expandable foam was coming out in large single pieces!

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More pics with all pieces out. The expandable foam is probably 3 times the volume of the white structural foam, and the structural blocks are rounded off at most edges. I’ll probably make new ones.

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Just curious, who made this hull? I am guessing it is a Pearson hull and the hull ID number on the transom will start with "PSB..."

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
I agree the repair isnt major reconstruction. The lip looks pretty flexible.... fortunately
 
So it's a 1995 Sunfish Laser International (SLI). They were pretty good boats, but this one has had a hard life. If she were a horse, you would say that she was 'road hard and put up wet.'

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY
 
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So it's a 1995 Sunfish Laser International (SLI). They were pretty good boats, but this one has had a hard life. If she were a horse, you would say that she was 'road hard and put up wet.'

Alan Glos
Cazenovia, NY

Except this one was road hard and is still pretty dry. LOL
 
If you havent already considered this...while you got it open, you might consider beefing up the mast hole..bottom looks minimal and adding backing plates of your choice, for the reachable stuff. I just epoxied in 1/4" aluminum plates and tapped 10/24 machine screws into them.
 
If you havent already considered this...while you got it open, you might consider beefing up the mast hole..bottom looks minimal and adding backing plates of your choice, for the reachable stuff. I just epoxied in 1/4" aluminum plates and tapped 10/24 machine screws into them.

Any pics of what you did? I’m having trouble picturing how you reinforced yours.
 
No pics....just took 3"x5" aluminum plates and stuck to the deck underside using a thickened West System epoxy putty. Then I could just tap the screw holes for the hardware...no nuts, washers, etc. I cut access thru the bottom and there's a thread about that awhile back showing the cut holes and initial glassing back up.
 
Btw....in saltwater using stainless screws, I might reconsider the dissimilar metals with the alum plates
 
Oh. If you're talking about the mast tube...just more layers of glass, especially around the ends were it joins the deck and hull areas
 
Well, I have good news. A friend of mine has some spare white foam blocks that we were keeping for wing cores (another time suck of mine) that he is going to donate for the new hull blocks. The two part foam and a new access port have been ordered!
 
More pics with all pieces out. The expandable foam is probably 3 times the volume of the white structural foam, and the structural blocks are rounded off at most edges. I’ll probably make new ones.

Wow! I thought you were going to destroy the deck, but your procedure worked out really well.
 
I was surprised at how easily it separated. It still took me about an hour, but wasn’t too bad. There is a fiberglass strip sandwiched between the deck and hull and the key is getting the blade on one side of it and working your way down the line slowly.
 
Waiting for the supplies to come in I decided to do some fiberglass work on the front end. Ive repaired these holes before with backer material shoved through and glued using the resin. So repairing one from the backside was a real luxury! First I had to clean up all of the poor fiberglass mess from the factory. It was a jumble of half glass half resin twisted goop at the nose. I ground it down and cleaned up the surrounding area. Then came 5 layers of progressively larger 6ozs cloth. The resin dried in no time in a 95 degree garage. I had to work fast!

The bottom pic is kind of creepy looking with the backlight shining through.
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This thread is fascinating. One day I am going to crack my fish open and check out the jumbled mess inside.

Dion. Nice car too! I love that mustard colour.
 
Thanks. The color of the 912 is called Bahama Yellow and it’s original from 1968.

Today I installed a 6” port just behind the splash rail, so now I have good access to the front and rear of the foam blocks. I also did some more cleaning and vacuuming of the interior so now it doesn’t have anything unnecessary rattling around in there. The centerboard trunk is also in great shape.

Then I flipped the boat and started doing some grinding and fiberglass patching of some cracks and ugly areas. Well, the whole boat is ugly but seaworthy is what I’m after, not beauty queen trophies! Apparently at one point this poor bottom was also painted. Poor sad little boat.

I also took some pics of the strip of what used to be the fiberglass coated sealing strip. At this point it’s very brittle and hard. I’ll grind this off of the top and bottom and make a new one when I reseal the deck.
 

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Quick update. I’ve been working on patching the hull rough spots with glass, so nothing exciting there. But I have been waiting to pickup the large foam blocks from my friend. I got those yesterday afternoon and broke out my foam cutting wire bow last night. I have various foam cutting tools for the RC airplane obsession as well, but that’s a different story for a different forum! I use a car battery charger as my power source because I didn’t feel like lugging my other power source upstairs out of my workshop. It’s pretty easy to do but it took a couple of tries to get the right length between the alligator clips so the wire would not burn up right away. It’s also tough to do freehand long cuts so you can see some waviness in the side of my blocks, but it really doesn’t matter because nobody Is going to see them

I’ve attached pictures of the foam blocks and the leftover pieces that were trimmed off of the blocks that ended up going into the hull. No pictures of those blocks before I installed them but suffice it to say that they have the required small gap between top and bottom when installed. About 10 o’clock last night the temperature was perfect so I started mixing the two part expanding foam, attached a small red solo cup to a long steel bar and started mixing the two part foam in 100 g batches. The first pour didn’t go so well as I did not wait long enough for the foam to start to set up in the cup, and it ran right underneath the foam block and pooled in the middle of the hull and then foamed up. So I learned from there and the rest of the batches went well.

Today I will do the same thing to the top of the foam blocks but I need help with somebody holding the boat on its side at the right angle, so I need to wait for my 17-year-old son to get out of bed! The hull and deck are already significantly stiffer, so the top foam will be icing on the cake.
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From the grain in the blocks I think what you're using is expanded polystyrene foam (EPS - "bead board"). EPS readily absorbs water. What you want as structural flotation is extruded polystyrene foam (XPS).
 
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