Advice on installing inspection port on rear deck?

billeidson

New Member
Hi - I'm looking for advice (and pictures, if possible) on removing the foam in the rear deck area. Last year, I bought a 1978 Laser. I've fixed most of the leakage problems, but the boat is still heavy. I assume the foam inside is saturated.

I put my digital camera in the inspection port just to the right of the centerboard and saw that there is a flotation bag, no foam, in the bow.
Therefore, I assume the trouble spot is under the rear deck.

Questions:

* Is a 5-inch inspection port big enough to reach in and cut out the foam or should I be looking for a 6-inch port (available on the Force 5 site).
* Where exactly is the foam?
* Where is the best place for the port? On the rear deck or inside the aft wall of the cockpit?
* And I've seen people recommend gluing the ports and others using nuts & bolts - any recommendations?
* If anyone knows of a site that shows a step by step process, I'd appreciate the link

Thanks for any help.

Bill
[email protected]
 
Merrily - thank you! That was very useful. I had found a few of those links, but there were a couple that talked specifically about the rear deck that I hadn't seen. It sounds like if I cut near the traveler cleat I should be in the right spot to get the foam. Also, someone mentioned that I need to be sure that the port doesn't interfere with the tiller. Good point...

Thanks again,

Bill
 
Before you go cutting out holes in your boat find out if there is indeed foam in the boat at all. I don't think there is any foam floatation in the hull!
 
a 78 hull did not have foam floation when new - it had the plastic cubitainers.

How heavy is it ? It's not out the question for the hull to pick up 20 pounds in the laminates
 
Perhaps the cubitainers have absorbed water. Can you lift the
floatation bag/cubitainers and see if they are heavy?
 
Thanks for all the responses. This was very helpful. I had assumed the previous owner put the cubitainers in the bow, but they must be the originals. The one that I can reach feels light.

So I guess the boat has just picked up weight over almost thirty years...who hasn't?? She's still fun to sail.

Thanks everyone.
 
Rinse the boat. Spray soapy water inside and roll it over and over and over and up and down end for end. Then send air through it until it is bone dry. No way the laminates can pick up more than a pound or two of water unless the deck foam is saturated.
On the other hand bug and other creature's nests can sometimes be very heavy.

Example: I ntexas we have a wasp called a mud dobber. it commonly makes nests with aabout eight tubes foir the kiddies. The nest is about the size of a golf ball and is a hard chunk of dried mud. When mud dobbers build nests in Lasers and the Lasers get damp inside when sailing and the nexts break loose and pulverize, the mud makes a heavy coating on the inside of the hull.
I once rinsed out a Fireball and drained out over fifty pounds of mud. Sure there was a harmonica, a towell, some beer cans, a few old lines, a few "lost" drain plugs and various lines and stuff but the real weight was the bug nests.
 

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