Injecting? Cannot get Epoxy in the holes!

[metsche]

Hello guys,
I have a cockpit floor that you can press down about 5mm when you press in the middle between the non skid areas. So I marked the holes for injecting epoxy and drilled two of them to see, whether ist works. My problem is, I cannot fill more than the little hole with the sirenge. Whatever pressure I use with the sirenge, I do not get any further Epoxy in it. Also no Epoxy comes out of the other hole which is 6 cm from the first and also in the "soft area" also I cannot see the delamination when I look through the drilled holes. I have put in a nail and pressed the bottom down, to see, whether the nail is moving up and down in the hole. That would mean, that there is a distance between the foam and the laminat. But nothing true of that. So I currently stop this activity, because more holes will be only ugly and if I cannot manage to inject further epoxy, that makes no sense.

Also I have been assued, that once the holes are filled, epoxy will come out, when I press the floor down, but nothing happens, the level of Epoxy in the two holes stays the same...

My question is, what is my fault or is it at the end normal, that the cockpit floor moves down when you press with about 30kg in the middle? Or is it only bent upwards? Thought this is spongy.
I have no clou.

Please give some advice,
Micha

 

[metsche]

So I reninforced the maststep even it was in a good shape and the donut was still where it should be. I put 240er glas over the donut and round the mast. This is like concrete now.
Also I reinforced the upper part. And I made some gelcoat cosmetics to the masthole from outside (see before and after pics).

About the spongy floor and steerboard seat. I think I leave this crap as it is and I go sailing once it gets warmer outside

Metsche

 

[Just A Mom]

We did this to our son's boat due to a spongy cockpit. When looking at your pictures it appears that one of your holes, that you drilled, is right over a piece of wood that runs down the middle of the cockpit under the cockpit floor. Obviously, there is no cavity under that so the epoxy is only going to fill the amount of the drilled hole. It is hard to tell by the picture but it looks like the second hole is also still within the vicinity of that piece of wood.

When we did this we had no problem filling the holes and the project worked out quite well. The cockpit is no longer spongy. We did this as a quick fix to get one more year out of a laser that was going to get the crap beat out of it (son sailed it at a sailing school where the younger kids would repeatedly run into him). But now that he's graduated on we're looking for a brand, spanking new boat.

 

[metsche]

Hm, but when I drilled the holes, there was some foam coming out, so that means I did not drill down through the second layer of glass but was between the two layers. And there I would have been expected being able to press some epoxy in, if the glass layers were delaminated from the foam between!?

 

[Just A Mom]

Go here:

https://www.westsystem.com/wp-content/uploads/Fiberglass-Manual-2015.pdf

Start at section 5.

This is pretty much what we used as a guide. We drilled at least 100 holes in the cockpit floor. We filled with epoxy and then we gelcoated the entire cockpit and deck. It looks great and is sound. No more spongy spots.

Just know that this WILL make the boat heavier so it's not going to be a competition boat after this. But it's a good, sturdy boat for playing around on the lake.

 

[Just A Mom]

Here is how we drilled the holes.