Alluminum sheathing

[emeraldsea]

I would really rather be cruising than always working on my boat, so in the interest of reduced maintinence, I had an idea to put an allum. "cap" over top of the wooden house on my ferro boat. I have repaired rotten spots with new wood and or epoxy, and the structure is good. My Idea is to eliminate any future water penetration and therefore maintinence. The "cap would be epoxied to the house, and then through bolted via deck fittings and windows.

Any thoughts on this being a good solution or a crazy idea?

[RaptorDance]

I think it would be difficult to seal the edges of the aluminum properly and you'd also have to worry about corrosion. In my opinion you'd be better off glassing over house after it's structurally repaired.

[SkiprJohn]

I agree with Bill. A layer of mat and 10oz cloth layed down with epoxy resin would be a much better sealer and would not corrode.
JohnL

[Steve Rust]

Yeh, glass over it. Use Xynole polyester as first choice, Dynel or polypropylene would also work. These fabrics are better than fiberglass for covering a wood structure and cost is similar. Easier to work with and wet out as good or better. Triple tape all seams, corners and edges and round off sharp corners with a nice radius before applying fabric. I am assuming this is a plywood structure as it may not be a good idea to glass over a traditional plank and seam construction. If so you could put a layer of ply over the top and then glass it.

[hellosailor]

There are plenty of ways to seal a deck, and roofing membranes and mastics that most folks never hear about which form a good watertight seal and stay stuck down. In big enough sheets so there are no seams to worry about. But you still have things like the mast and handrails and fixtures--literally everything that is bolted down will have to be reconsidered and probably reattached so it doesn't let more water into the plywood. The problem with aluminum is that you'll have seams to seal, and it may block radio (cell phones, GPS, etc.) belowdecks that you might one day want to use.

Check out the local professional roofing supply companies, and price that up versus conventional fiberglassing. I'd be surprised if aluminum still came out a winner for cost and seamlessness.

[Steve Rust]

I took a closer look at your photos and it looks like the problem seems to be confined to the edges. It looks as though the cabin top to cabin side joint is a little loose or poorly fastened. If so make sure it is well fastened and preferrably epoxy glued . The epoxy and fabric coating will not hold together poorly fastened structures. Movement in the joint must be kept to an absolute minimum. The fabrics I mentioned in the earlier post can tolerate a very small amount of movement better than fiberglass and they have better abrasion resistance.

Another tip for eliminating rot around leaking deck fittings is to drill oversize holes for the fasteners then put a piece of masking tape on the underside and then fill the hole with epoxy then drill the proper size hole.