Boat Deck Moisture Readings ?

[Opie91]

Hi projectgator,

Did you remove all of the balsa core? Does it run under that glass layer up toward the toe rail? Toe rails can be a big contributor to deck moisture.
Good luck with your project!!!

[projectgator]

thanks for the moody forum. Sigma has an informal one, under preloved....in the UK. Good people as well...not organized like the Moody site...Many on the site have the belief that the decks are 100% solid as they didn't feel Sigma would have installed teak over anything but solid fiberglass. I can attest that under the teak and fiberglass there is balsa.

I put the solid resin around the chain plates as it's inevitable there will be water intrusion and the epoxy won't absorb/rot like the balsa or plywood. The thought is to raise the chainplate platform just a bit so standing water and water that follows the stays down will not pool there. In addition, I'll use urethane calk that between the deck and the top stainless plate and compress it together with the through-deck bolts. Hopefully this will keep water out of the cabin and the core.... One of the big reasons to remove the teak and gelcoat/core was to help keep the integrity/value of the boat and to reduce/eliminate water coming in through the deck into the cabin....A dry boat is a happy boat...!

[projectgator]

There a combination of balsa, marine plywood and fiberglass as coring material dependent on the location. If you see the pics of the boat, you can see the mid sections between the toe rail and cabin were balsa (this has been removed)lene and replaced with polypropelene honeycomb, the area next to the cabin is marine plywood, I removed the area by the chain plates and replaced with epoxied okuma plywood, the remaining plywood I ground down to determine there was no rot and then covered first with epoxy resin and then with fiberblass and epoxy. The area near the toe rail is where the hull/deck flanges are overlapped (on the horizontal), bedded and bolted together. This is fiberglass with no coring material at all. This area all I did was grind the gel coat off and some of the fiberglass decking as well. My intention is to fair the decks after another layer of biaxial woven cloth, apply primecote primer (3 coats), then use Interlux Perfection for the top coats, and use non-skid additive for the last coat...I'm considering removing all of the deck fittings on the deck house and re-paint this as well. Just a lot of bolts to remove, epoxy the holes and re-drill and bed...but that will give me more insurance against leaks!!