Soft Deck repair

powergroove

powergroove

Member
I have a hull with one stiff side, one soft side. I know it wont be a racer, but whats the best way to stiffen it up?
Ive heard that you drill many holes and squirt thickened epoxy into them, but how do you then fix the "buckshot" deck?

Any advice will be appreciated(excpet to throw the hull away and start over)
 
Anyone? I'd like to hear if this is practical.

It would be great if you could support it from underneath with an airbag or something while it cured.
 
powergroove said:
... how do you then fix the "buckshot" deck?
Click to expand...

You could paint it, or do what I did and just let them be (my deck looks ugly, but it sails fine!).

A couple of hints:
  • Wax the deck around the holes. That will make any epoxy that oozes out much easier to remove.
  • I used a initial injection of neat (un-thickened) epoxy, followed by some thickened with WEST Microlight.
  • I forget the exact drill size, but there is a common size that you can fit the standard Luer taper syringe fitting into tightly.
  • I used syringes to "cork" the holes I'd already injected glue into, so it couldn't be forced back out by nearby injections. After a couple of sessions (I had a lot of delamination), I had a considerable collection of epoxy-filled syringes to use for sealing holes.
 
I have not done this, but would it be neater to do this from inside the boat? An inspection hatch could be put in the side of the cockpit and the holes filled from the underside. There will be no visible holes in the deck.

Another advantage is that you now have access to the top and bottom of the repair. You could devise some kind of clamp to hold the core and deck together whilst drying. This way you could minimise the amount of epoxy used and not add too much weight.

I would be interested to hear if people have tried this as I need to do a similar repair myself
 
I found an easy way to keep the deck clean. After holes were drilled, I simply put a piece of painters tape over the hole and used a pop rivet to break thru the tape and open the hole up enough for the resin. After lots of resin, the hukll is suprisingly stiffer, and then I peepled off the tape, a little sanding and it looks okay. You can definitely see the filled holes, but its not real ugly as I imagined it would be.
 
Powergroove thanks for the thread, I need to do this to my deck as well. I believe it spent many years stored deck down being pulled on an off a club rack. As a result there are large areas of sponginess. Love the masking tape idea to minimize cleanup. Couple of questions:

1) How far apart did you make your holes and are they in a pattern?
2) Did you leave the holes cylindrical (size of drill bit) within the core or did you swivel the bit around to expand the hole within the core to allow more epoxy?

Thanks,
Shaun
 
Shaun,
I drilled carefully through the first layer of glass(be very careful not to go all the way thru). I did not make the hole any bigger afterwards since my hull was so delaminated the foam was disintegrated and therefore allowed alot of resin to get in. I have read about people bending a piece of a clothes hanger into an L shape and putting it in a drill to remove the foam in a bigger area. This was not necessary on my wore-a$$ out hull.
Second, find the drill bit that matches your syringes(very important)

Thickened epoxy(I used 407)works much better, but theres a fine line for the size of your syringe tip.

Freds idea to sand the area until you reach the tape worked like a charm. He recommends retaping and contiuning to sand if still not smooth, although I did not do that.

I did not measure exactky, but did drill about every 6 inches in a square pattern up the one side of the hull that was soft~60 holes.

Im no expert, Fred can probably chime in for better results(If you can drag him away from the Sunfish Forum...)
 
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