End cut balsa and soft decks

[Faoilean]

Thanks,

Is it better to open up the deck from within the cabin, so as not to leave the deck with scars? It's really a shame when this rot takes place, and blemishes an otherwise perfect looking boat!

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Faoilean

Thanks,

Is it better to open up the deck from within the cabin, so as not to leave the deck with scars? It's really a shame when this rot takes place, and blemishes an otherwise perfect looking boat!

The beauty of GRP (or one of them) is that there are no scars when the repairs are done right.

There's a guy on here called Minaret who can tell you the best way to do it.

[Stumble]

Originally Posted by Faoilean

Thanks,

Is it better to open up the deck from within the cabin, so as not to leave the deck with scars? It's really a shame when this rot takes place, and blemishes an otherwise perfect looking boat!

This is really a tricky question to answer. It is MUCH easier to take the top off and do the repair from the top down. Since otherwise the replacement core and she'll keep falling off. On the other hand it also leaves a big scar in the deck that needs either new gel coat or paint. And usually on a boat this old you really want to repaint the entire boat since color matching is incredibly difficult.

On the other hand taking off the bottom is easy from a cosmetic standpoint, but it is a real pain to effectuate the repair correctly. It also requires working over your head with materials falling on you, likely in a cramped space, no way to brace the stuff well...

Frankly this is a crappy job no matter which way you go. But my recommendation would be to come at it from the top. Cut off the deck with an angle grinder and preserve the fiberglass shell as a plug. It is a less technical job, and doesn't require much in the way of specialty tools, just a good bit of fiddly work and grinding to do well. Coming from the bottom really requires vaccume bagging in my opinion, and that is a whole seperate skill set.

There are a lot of threads on core repair here and on other forums. I would suggest you spend some time reading them in detail and then coming back to ask specific questions.

[UNCIVILIZED]

If you Truly despise Balsa THAT much, you can try resin & a laminate bulker. But if you go that route, you'll wind up using a LOT more epoxy as compared to a structural core. Plus some extra reinforcing materials as well.
With the additional "perks" of far heavier decks, that also have less insulative value.

A couple of more realistic alternatives to Balsa are Paulowina Wood, & one of several of the varieties of Cedar out there. Western Red Cedar being the most common, but having no corner on the market.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by Faoilean

Thanks,

Is it better to open up the deck from within the cabin, so as not to leave the deck with scars? It's really a shame when this rot takes place, and blemishes an otherwise perfect looking boat!

From memory I think CF member s/v Jedi had a good example well illustrated on his personal website. google s/v Jedi.

He could have started the thread here.

[s/v Jedi]

I did a little repair from below but for the scale of the OP he should do this from above. I would put new fiberglass on top but may use foam instead of balsa, depends on price too. The finishing is not to be underestimated.

[Greenhand]

What kind of store should I be looking for to purchase end grain balsa?

Since I am rebuilding an anchor locker, and will not have the fvkin skin to work with, would it make more sense to glass in a G10, rather than the end grain balsa?

[Stumble]

There are a lot of places to get EGB it isn't really a specialty product. If what you are fixing has any bend to it then try and find a piece that has a scrim on one side that will flex over the bend. If it's flat then just a EGB board will work.

[s/v Jedi]

There's many places to buy core materials but I use Jamestown Distributors:

Sandwich Core Composite Materials

[olaf hart]

Random question, has anyone tried injecting polyurethane glue into a soggy balsa deck?

PU glue sets better with moisture, and is essentially a gap filling foam with good adhesion.

[colemj]

Seems like this needs to be repeated continually through numerous threads:

There is no fix for soaked/rotten core other than cutting out the core and recoring.

This is especially true for balsa and plywood cores.

Any other home-brewed "fixes" will not work, and are not even solutions. Anything that makes it "seem" solid and "fixed" only made it weaker in its function.

Drilling and injecting thousands of holes full of epoxy won't work.

Saturating with Git-Rot or similar won't work.

Filling with gap foam, or Gorilla glue or similar won't work.

Nothing will work except cutting out the old core and replacing it.

It is that simple (and I learned this over the years the hard way after mucking about with other "fixes" that made a real fix more difficult).

Mark

[Terra Nova]

What Mark said.