Restoring Laser - couple questions

[Birch]

Hi! I hope everyone is doing well today,

I bought this hull over a year ago and finally decided to start working on her. It is my third Laser so I have no real rush on it, I just do it for fun on my free time. Plus now I have the tools and resources to do so. But anyways I have a couple of questions. As you can see from the first photo I had some fiberglass work that needed to be fixed and the stern was completely destroyed. But after lots of sanding and glassing she is starting to come to shape. So I was wondering I have some soft spots in one side of the deck where you sit and I was wondering if I should take some time and fix it, or wait till she breaks on her own. It seems like it would hold up for some time but I sail in Charleston, SC and it blows 20+ knots a few times a week. I don't know if I should risk it. Plus I am repainting the entire boat so I don't know if I should take a saw to it to it and just reinforce it now or not. This is an old boat so most everyone thing I have encountered so far has been a major disaster. I have about 1/8 of an inch play in the hull on this spot. Is there anyway I can just glass the edges that seem to have the play to add strength? I can't really reach my hand under the bad spot so it is tough for me to tell how bad it is. I know this seems like a dump question but it is a matter of many hours of work for me.
Also today while I was sanding I stuck my head inside the hull and noticed a few things. I actually have blocks of floatation material in the hull. I am use to having those plastic cubes in my other boats. Is this going to make a difference? Should I remove them and add the new ones? I could understand if they were water logged and heavy but they are not and seem in good condition.
Also I noticed where the was light coming in from the outside in a few spots around the corners of the boat. This is a major concern for me. I have sanded the entire hull with 80, 120, 220 (taken many layers of marine paint of her...) and so on and go it looking nice and smooth prior to spraying her with gel-coat but these spots concern me. Should I glass over them to help protect them? Arg....just when you think you make progress on these old boats something else goes wrong. Let me know what you all think, thanks for the feedback!

 

[lasersailer148085]

About your decks. I junior race 148085 ( a 1992 hull) and this boat has been taken great care of but has been raced hard its entire life. So naturally the decks where going soft. I finally sucked it up and fixed the decks. My method seemed to have worked perfect as my decks are now are good as new. At least where you sit. I took a circular saw and a scroll saw to the worst spot on the deck, where you sit and pulled it out. I then separated the foam from the gel coat fibreglass layer and put down a layer of glass, foam and then glass. I put it on a flat surface. wrapped in a trash bag. To get the best pressure and really make sure it bonded well i put bricks over the entire thing, then a stiff piece of wood, then a 80 lbs bag of cement, i think this did the trick. To put the piece back in I used a combination of wood on the curved edge of the hull and fibre glass foam sandwiches on the flat deck area. I clamped these down really hard and then dry fitted the patch, after a lot of sanding I mixed up some epoxy filler and put it back in. bricks along the edges helped keep things flush. After it hardened i sanded, filled sanded filled, and sanded until you couldnt feel a difference and it was completely flush with the old deck, i then painted it over and now its good as new

 

[Bungo Pete]

Repairing soft decks is something I have thought about from time to time and I have been formulating a repair idea that would be suitable given the age of your hull, its condition and the fact that it is "#3." I would cut 2 rectangular access holes in each side of the hull about amidships. They would be just wide enough to get hands, tools, and epoxy in. Next I would repair the soft decks according to West System guidlines of drilling holes and filling with epoxy. If a large area was affected, then I would remove a section of the inner skin and fill and restore. Then I would make cleats out of very heavy woven roven and place around the inside of the holes. These would hold the piece of the hull in place while I glassed/filled and made it flush again. The advantage of this repair is that the nonskid is not affected and assuming you are going to fair and paint the hull, it will be virtually undetectable. Thoughts?

 

[deeman]

Looks like you have a great plan of attack and some great advice. I will be watching this thread to see how you make out. I hope to pick up a used laser in similar condition.

 

[deeman]

Since in am in the "same boat" as you I thought I would ask some qustions.

1. What weight glass did you choose for your repairs?
2. What epoxy and hardener?
3. Did you apply a filler over the areas you glassed? If so, what one?
4. What hull paint will you go with once you're ready?

Looks like you are a doing a great job.