Westsail restoration...

[Will Vivian]

I've recently purchsed a westsail 32. The previous owner passed away and the boat has been sitting in the PNW on the hard for at least 2 years. A survey was done at the last haulout which showed rot in the sampson posts and forward chain locker bulkhead. I knew some big repairs would need to be done but felt the boat was well worth the effort and I felt called to restore it to its former glory. I have some experience with deck repair, fiberglass, epoxies etc from restoring boats as a kid but this will be my first major project on my own.

In the past few days I've removed the forward bulkhead, which nearly crumbled to bits, as well as the sampson posts. The posts were made from 2.5"x3.5"mahogany and had significant rot where they passed through the deck. I knew the deck would have some moisture in this area so I removed the headliner and used an oscillating saw to remove a 1.5'x1.5' section of bottom skin. The area between the sampson post holes was completely rotted out and I could easily pry out a 6" square section. I've cleared out most of the core from the 1.5x1.5 section but as I keep peeling back more bottom skin I keep finding moisture and some delamination. The wood I'm into now seems strong and rot free, but is definitely wet. Not completely soaked, but definitely not dry. Some areas I'm working towards have difficult to remove hardware and repairs there will be tricky so I would prefer not to have to re-core the entire foredeck. Though I want to take this boat offshore, and I want it to last another 40 years. So, I'm wondering, is any moisture in the deck acceptable? Is there any way to dry this out? Or should I just dive in and replace the majority of the foredeck?

I have both west epoxy and poly resin on hand as well as 6oz cloth, a few different random mats, some heavy twil weave, 25oz biaxial mat/cloth 6"tape and some marine ply. I was planning to use epoxy to glue up fresh ply to the top skin, epoxy the old bottom skin to the new core, and then glass over the joints with some 6oz and twil with polyester.


For the bulkhead replacement I planned to cover a marine ply cutout with 6oz cloth with polyester resin on the chainlocker side. I left the inside tabbing in the chainlocker in place and planned to use some thickened epoxy to join the new bulkhead to it. I would then use polyester, random mat, and the 25oz bi-axial tape to re-tab the front side of the bulkhead before gluing on a veneer.

Was hoping someone could give me input on the moisture situation and if I have the right strategy for the bulkhead layup.

I look forward to epoxy sealing every hole and cutout in this deck once this job is done.

Photos to come...

[Arthurwg]

Wow! This should be a great thread. Very interested as I might be doing something similar in the near future.

[drewm3i]

I have done partial structural repairs on a past boat project.

In a transom I was redoing (power boat), the lower middle section was mush so I cut it out and glassed in new members. For the wet but strong parts, I cut it open and let it dry. I also saturated it with ethylene glycol which kills rot spores supposedly. I then drilled holes and faired with epoxy mixed with fibers and glassed everything back together.

[drewm3i]

Also, you cant use polyester resin over epoxy as it wont create a chemical bond.

[Will Vivian]

Thanks for the input so far.

Yes. I'm aware of the poly to epoxy vs epoxy to poly. I'm only using epoxy to bond to the existing tabbing, and then using polyester for the new tabs.

I'm thinking I"ll just pull most of the inner skin off the foredeck and leave the heater on it for a bit and hopefully that will rid the majority of the moisture.

Today I built the new bulkhead in two peices and glassed over the back side with 6oz cloth. I must now get the deck core sorted out so I can install the new bulkhead and get the vbirth back to a somewhat manageable situation...