Core repair

[wpc691]

Ok so the purists are going to scream but a friend of mine bought a 53c back a while ago. The deck in front of the bridge station was soft. We drilled a bunch of 1/4" holes then took a bent nail on a drill and scarfed out the material below the holes. We then shot great stuff in the holes untill it came out the other holes. After it dried we filled the holes in with thickened epoxy and painted the deck. He charter fished the boat for 5 years after that and the deck never got soft. Not a 50 year fix but it worked.

I spent over an hour on the phone a couple of weeks ago with the owner of Viking Boatworks in Tampa, reportedly one of the best yards on the West coast of Florida. He told me every detail of Hatteras deck construction, why the water goes where it goes, etc. He went through every repair option, including the one your friend undertook. He didn't pooh-pooh the option at all, just said be aware that it can go wrong or be ineffective, and subsequent repair has been made much more difficult. My impression is it would be a reasonable repair for a relatively small area caught early before there's a lot of wet core and delamination.

[bobk]

I would not use Great Stuff. It's too soft. A better alternative is higher density expandable foam which is available from several sources.

Bobk

[krush]

I spent over an hour on the phone a couple of weeks ago with the owner of Viking Boatworks in Tampa, reportedly one of the best yards on the West coast of Florida. He told me every detail of Hatteras deck construction, why the water goes where it goes, etc. He went through every repair option....

Will you pass on some of that information? Many of us would like the knowledge.

[rsmith]

I would not use Great Stuff. It's too soft. A better alternative is higher density expandable foam which is available from several sources.

Bobk

It was all we had at the time but there must be some hi density stuff out there. I have to think there is a better way than cutting the deck out.

[Boatsb]

There are kits for 2 part closed cell foams that are more suited to the marine environment but they are not available in easy to use spray cheese cans like the great stuff.

[wpc691]

It was all we had at the time but there must be some hi density stuff out there. I have to think there is a better way than cutting the deck out.

Expanding foam is one method that Eric (Viking) did not recommend. Easy to use, but unpredictable expansion results. His recommendation for injection was appropriately filled epoxy (not too thick, not too thin, ha-ha) injected with the refillable caulking gun cartridges, with the disclaimer I mentioned above about difficulty of future repairs. He said his yard would not use this method as it leaves wet coring in place; depending on how long you think you'll live, you might feel that's OK.

[wpc691]

Will you pass on some of that information? Many of us would like the knowledge.

I'd love to, but I felt like I was standing in front of a firehose - I wish I had a recorder on. I'll have to blurt out gems of wisdom as they come back to me. He stressed the importance of rebedding deck fixtures and fasteners to prevent intrusion, as Hatteras did some things that weren't good ideas. One thing I would certainly do is ring my decks with my little bronze hammer once a quarter - the smaller the problem, the easier the fix.

[bobk]

I'd love to, but I felt like I was standing in front of a firehose - I wish I had a recorder on. I'll have to blurt out gems of wisdom as they come back to me. He stressed the importance of rebedding deck fixtures and fasteners to prevent intrusion, as Hatteras did some things that weren't good ideas. One thing I would certainly do is ring my decks with my little bronze hammer once a quarter - the smaller the problem, the easier the fix.

Go over the decks with a moisture meter too. It will show wet areas that have not yet delaminated to the point of being detected with a tapping hammer.

Bobk

[wpc691]

Go over the decks with a moisture meter too. It will show wet areas that have not yet delaminated to the point of being detected with a tapping hammer.

Bobk

Yes, good idea. If the deck rings dull, you already have a delam. Great to completely avoid the problem if you can. I have to say I'm pretty proud of my little bronze hammer - I used it to ring grinding wheels when I was a wet-behind-the-ears manufacturing engineer sometime in the last century.

[Dan Mapes]

Refillable caulk tubes for epoxy? YGTBSM. You'd better keep the tubes, resin, and hardener in the fridge because you will be lucky to get it into the tube before it kicks. Once you have it in the tube it will probably kick before you can squeeze it out. Don't bother thinking about this method let alone trying it.