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CharlieCobra · 02-12-2011, 09:51

Oops, found some unpleasantness with the Mariner yesterday as we turned our attention to the topside. Was tapping the house and found a soft spot. dug the glass away and found this:

and this:

so, not wanting to do things in a half-assed fashion, we're going to cut out and replace the offending cabin wall completely.
You can see the initial cut lines here:

and here:

Not a show stopper, just a temporary setback. I supposed we could've soaked the mess with CPES and glassed it over but that's not how we roll.

SkiprJohn · 02-12-2011, 11:06

Aloha Charlie,
Unfortunately this was a problem with the Mariner boats. Many an owner needed to rebuild cockpits and cabin sides and backs. I don't know if it was an inferior plywood issue or what but it was a pretty common problem with them if there was a lot of freshwater intrusion under the glass.
They are still very good boats and and good sturdy sailers.
kind regards,

delmarrey · 02-12-2011, 11:14

Seams and screw holes. They gotta be done right! Sometimes, beauty is only skin deep.

**Jim Cate** · 02-12-2011, 12:42

G'Day Charlie,

FWIW, many years ago a "traditional enthusiast" pal of mine bought a brand new Mariner 30. This was before they segued from timber to FRP hulls, and the hull was a thing of beauty, planked in some form of mahogany IIRC. My friend extolled the longevity of timber hulls, pointing out the surviving hundred-plus YO vessels that he admired, and reckoning that his new Mariner would be around as long.

Well, within a shockingly short time (a rather few years) the hull was indeed still quite sound, but he was hiring a shipwright to replace most of the cockpit and some of the sides of the trunk cabin... all plywood, no glass involved. A true pity, and apparently the bad practices moved forward to plague the glass versions.

Meanwhile, good onya for doing it right... they're nice boats.

Cheers,

Jim

**s/v Jedi** · 02-12-2011, 14:01

Yes, replace with new plywood (Bruynzeel if budget allows). If you fix all that damage with epoxy and glass, it is gonna weigh too much and cost too much.

It's the finishing that is the brunt of the job but I think you might have had a paint job on the list already.

ciao!
Nick.

rebel heart · 02-12-2011, 14:20

Here's some rot repair I needed to take care of. The actual section was much larger; had some good 4' runs.

Rebel Heart - Sailing, cruising, liveaboard blog and website - Eric's Blog - rot repair with*epoxy

SkiprJohn · 02-12-2011, 21:17

My old wood Mariner hull had 1 and 1/4" mahogany planking on oak frames. I did develop some transom rot as it was ply. I took care of it early so that it would not be a continual issue.
Again, aside from the ply they used in them they are great boats.
kind regards,

CharlieCobra · 03-12-2011, 06:15

We got the old ply section out and there's some localized rot in the shelf so I'll scarph in the new wood, laminate with 1/4" sheets of Aquatech and re-glass. I'll get some shots up later today.

CharlieCobra · 03-12-2011, 06:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Yes, replace with new plywood (Bruynzeel if budget allows). If you fix all that damage with epoxy and glass, it is gonna weigh too much and cost too much.

It's the finishing that is the brunt of the job but I think you might have had a paint job on the list already.

ciao!
Nick.

The hull paint is done except for rubbing it out. Yes, we still hand rub our paint jobs out.... Once this repair is done, we'll do the house and deck.

CharlieCobra · 03-12-2011, 06:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by delmarrey

Seams and screw holes. They gotta be done right! Sometimes, beauty is only skin deep.

It was simply cracked glass that somebody tried to caulk. Like always, halfassed repairs lead to major repairs.

blahman · 04-12-2011, 10:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by CharlieCobra

...Was tapping the house and found a soft spot...

I found that choice of wording, considering the scale of your problems, to be quite amusing.

I feel your pain!

~A

vintageray · 04-12-2011, 11:01

I'm into the same project on my '72 Mariner 40. Moisture from soft deck migrated up into the cabin top sides in places. The bad areas go up only a few inches, so I may cut out a "strip" along the bottom and rabbit in new ply. While I'm at it I'm getting rid of the old laminated glass in the large windows which is sandwiched into the plywood sides and replacing it with thru bolted lexan. I'll re-use the original metal frames over the lexan to preserve the original appearance. Also dealing with rot on my main mast below the sheaves and also where the spreaders mount. Hey, it's forty years old. A great boat all in all and a real looker. Just takes a little upkeep.
There's an article on the Mariner owner's website in the "projects" section with photos and drawings showing how the deck and cabin sides are put together. The writer had a man come over from Japan to redo his and wrote a nice piece about the project. I believe it is a 30', not the same as my 40', but still informative. I believe it's titled "Deck replacement".

Blue Stocking · 04-12-2011, 11:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by blahman

I found that choice of wording, considering the scale of your problems, to be quite amusing.

I feel your pain!

~A

The vernacular of a true boat builder

. There are no big problems-only small problems that involve a large area, eh Charlie?

sdowney717 · 04-12-2011, 11:21

dont use bondo against bare wood. Bondo absorbs water from the air and saturates the wood around it like a sponge.
For that seriously ugly port light wood, either replace the whole piece or
mix some pl premium polyurethane construction adhesive with sawdust 50-50 and slather it into the wounded wood. It will swell up and form a 100% waterproof seal which you can then sand down with coarse grit.

Lay a piece of plastic like a cereal bag on top of the patch and press it down flat and it will contour form to the surface and you wont need to do so much fairing.