Soft Spot Flybridge Deck

[shvldis]

Noticed a spongy area in flybridge deck on our 1973 58YF, outboard of pilots chair. Is this area balsa cored? Any Ideas on how to repair? Kent

 

[Nonchalant1]

Yes it is cored. Sorry for the bad news, but I believe you'll need to remove the top or bottom fiberglass, dig out the bad core, put in a new core (like marine plywood) and re-fiberglass it. See a number of other threads on this type problem, but not necessarily in this location or boat. One of particular interest was Genesis thread titled !@?!?!?@?$?!@ Anchor Pulpit teak inlays! In this classic boatowner's project, he started working on the teak inlays and found that the core under the pulpit was rotten. He did an excellent job digging out and replacing it from the underside, working in the anchor locker.

Doug Shuman

 

[Genesis]

That was a royal biatch of a job, by the way.

Don't expect yours to be any easier. Working from underneath is the "right way" to do it, but its also the nastiest, most god-awful way to go about it too from a standpoint of personal comfort.

 

[rtrafford]

hmph...working overhead is a royal pain. dig it out from above, forget the balsa if the area is small, and simply fill it back up with solid glass. a good finisher can typically blend the non skid to match.

 

[Liquid Asset]

I have to agree, I would do it from the top. A good fiberglass finisher can make it look like it was never touched. You may have to paint the deck up top, but you will never notice it. Plus if you do it from the bottom that involves taking the headliner out from the inside. You dont want a resin smell inside your cabin. I dont think that would be a very good smell and my guess would be that it would be dificult to keep from making a mess. Ever been to a fiberglass shop. No matter how much ground covering they put down, ther eis always resin on the floor. I will not have that on my carpet.

 

[shvldis]

It sounds like top down would be alot less messy, just had new headliner and carpet installed. Ill use hole saw to cut out some inspection plugs, Hopefully not so bad that it can't be dryed out and flooded with epoxy. Will then bed all fasteners in that area, keep it from happening again.Does anyone know of any available slips from Melbourne Fl north to Daytona, currently she is in Lauderdale, 5 1/2 hrs away. Need to move her north. Kent

 

[Nonchalant1]

Kent,

Maybe rebed more than just the fasteners in the area. After reading a number of horrer stories like this, I rebedded all 160 screws on my flybridge. Just unscrew them, put in a good shot of 5200 and screw the screw back in place. I also recaulked my bow pulpit from inside and out with 4400 for the same reason. I hope it fixes it before it becomes a problem.

Doug Shuman

 

[Genesis]

If it's wet inside there's only one fix for it - get the water out.

If the integrity is not TOO far gone, you can pump it full of epoxy, but you first must get the water out - somehow - or you're just encapsulating the problem and it will find a way to spread to other parts of the coring that are not yet trashed.

 

[Ernie Piotrowski]

Had the same spongy problem on my 32' FBSF cockpit with circular inspection hatches. The balsa core became wetted with the freezing during the winters due to inadequate sealing when installed and finally gave up the ghost. Replaced the cockpit sole with two layers of 1/2" Nidacore and couldn't be happier. You could stand two elephants on the cockpit sole and it wouldn't flex! My son swung a claw hammer against the inspection port cutouts and couldn't even dent them! The honeycomb construction of Nidacore gives you a little better base to match the surrounding area and finish it off. Good luck.

 

[mike]

FWIW, at the risk of sounding like a promo for Smith & Company, I would use their clear penetrating epoxy sealer. It is a very low viscosity product designed exactly for this purpose. It works by displacing the water in the substrate with the carrier solvent used in the penetrating epoxy. I have used it many times over the past 30 years with excellent results. Start by drilling 3/8" or 1/2” dia. holes in a grid pattern bounding the perimeter of the failure area. Then pump/vac out as much moisture as possible and then pour in the CPS and saturate the substrate. This may take 2 to 3 days; Smith has a slow-set version designed exactly for this purpose. (start with a wide hole to hole spacing, reduce the spacing until you have CPS spill over between the holes; do a test area in the worst spot first to establish the hole spacing, use small funnels to saturate the substrate; also be advised if you have a water leak into the salon from above that the CPS will find it, so be prepared by covering the carpets, you may encounter some headliner stains as a result) After it cures, I would follow with an epoxy filler in the holes, followed by an epoxy surface seal and a deck repaint. You can also use the CPS for filling in the flybridge deck screws mentioned in a prior post, followed by 4200. The net effect is your are sealing off a path for moisture intrusion into the substrate. Also mix in some anti-fungicide such as Penta to reduce the chance of mold and dry rot making its way into the wood in the underlying deck structure. I have used this product on both wood and fiberglass boats with very good outcomes. My most recent project was a 32’ offshore with a transom failure repaired as described above. I have the same problem as you on our 53MY and plan to repair it as described above. Worst case if the underlying substrate is not repairable, I would proceed as described in the prior post, but would still use the CPS to bound the failed area. I highly recommend you call Steve Smith. Make sure you ask for him directly, he is a no-bs guy and very knowledgeable about what does and does not work, and he is not shy about telling you. 1-510-237-6842 or 1-800-234-0330. Smith & Co., 5100 Channel Ave. Richmond, CA 94804-4646.

 

[34Hatt]

I have done so many decks I can't remember all of them. I have done the vacuum pump Idea and injected them with epoxy and it does work and hold together. But I have also cut deck open where that type of repair was done. It is not the right way to do it, cut it open get all the damp stuff out it will be a lot bigger then your soft spot replace it using ninda core as posted above GREAT STUFF the only way to go NO wood only in a area such as a seat base. By the time your done drillng hole's and trying to dry it out which will never happen completely in our life time, you can do it in less time and know it was done right!
Dan

 

[Maynard Rupp]

The Hatteras rep, Bruce Morrison told me that the flybridge unit was installed at the factory by well trained folks, BUT, some boats, including ours were shipped to dealers on a truck. When that happened, the flybridge was not installed at the factory,(bridge clearence). Hatteras tried to assure that the dealers people did it correctly, but some flunked the course. Our flybridge was bedded correctly to the salon roof, but there was no caulk at all where the console meets the flybridge sides. Big water hole. We back cauleked that area with 5200, removed every screw and caulked also. We also had water getting in the overhangs from improper caulking of the drain to flybridge area. We fixed all that and then face caulked the entire edge of the flybridge joint with 3M 4000, (UV proof).