Weather boards replacement

[Pascal]

The entire starboard side weather boards, railing and stanchions from the PH Door to the stern were wiped out during Irma last year the rest was in ok shape but i never really liked how flimsy it felt and all the seams, screws, etc..

So... i decided to do it in fixed fiberglass. Been kicking around ideas, talked to the yard when i repowered as well as a fiberglass specialist i ve used before on other boats but estimates ranged from 10 to 15k. Plus paint...

I decided to use Coosa and started on this project yesterday afternoon. I am building 4' long panels. Eqch vertical 3/4" panel stands on a 1" thick coosa strip backed up by another 1" strip to reinforced the joint. At each end i had a 3/4" vertical strip of Coosa to mate each panel to the next.

So far so good i have most of the port side assembled and dry fitted. All pieces are assembled with with Epoxy and high density filler. Right now the panels are just screwed into the cap rail, tomorrow i will grind the paint and gelcoat off and epoxy them in place.

When it s all done i ll add a new mahogany hand rail. The old hand rail needed to be redone anyway after all almost 50 years of sanding...

Stay tuned...

[RonNP]

I bet that will look amazing and much sturdier than OEM.

[SEVEN]

Send photos once painted. What type of metal did you use?

[jim rosenthal]

You can roll and tip these, with AwlGrip, and they will look great.

[spartonboat1]

I used Coosa for deck rebuilds- solid stuff. You should be able to fend off unwanted boarders now!

[johnjen50]

Looks solid! Big improvement over the old set up. Will you continue around the aft where the curve at the transom is?

[Pascal]

Yes, I am replacing both sides and the transom. Also on my early 53, the hand rail and top of the boards didn’t follow the sheer of the hull, the weather boards near the aft deck doors were 2” taller than by the pilothouse doors and at the transom. Looked a little odd somthe new ones will have the dip to follow the sheer

[Toolsntoys]

That’s an awesome improvement. Never liked all the bracket and screws.

[Chasemmc]

Thanks for sharing your project. A lot of us are faced with remediating our old weatherboards. One question I have for both the coosa boards and the PVC approach is dealing with expansion and contraction of the panels due to temp. I would think panels exposed to direct sunlight, especially pvc expands a lot and gets soft.What accommodation are u making for expansion and contraction since it's being epoxied to the gunwale?

[Pascal]

I dont know about PVC but i dont think coosa will react differently from fiberglass.

Working on the transom this morning, it s a little tricky becuase the panels have to be curved so m cutting notches in th base