Aft deck repair

[Pascal]

Ever since I bought my 53 back in 2003, the aft deck always felt like a trampoline. Finally got around to fixing it

Because of the size of the deck I though it would be impractical to pull the skin, replace the core and reglass since we would have had to build some kind of temporary platform to be able to do the work.

Instead i had a guy grind the old paint and whatever filler was loose. Then we lay a layer of chopped strand mat with west system and screwed in 1/2 Coosa. Then went a layer of Bi Axial and chop strand Nat. Pretty much building a new deck but using the old top skin as a mold and lower skin. What a difference. Deck now feels solid and will never rot!

Added 3” gutters along the sides for water to drain to the deck drain.

Haven’t decided on finish... leaning toward some interlocking wood tiles... I don’t like the fake teak.

[Pascal]

Part 2... total so far is about 50 hours and $2000 of material.

[Cricket]

There's usually a different way to end up where you need to be, the hard part is figuring out that path.
Pretty work.

[SEVEN]

I have a friend with a 53 YF who had similar issues with his aft deck. Very wet and very spongy. He decided to drill about 300 half-inch holes in the deck all the way to the bottom of the next layer of fiberglass. He then painted the back deck with water color paint in dark blue. He did this so when the sun hit on it it would get hot. During the entire summer it was exposed to the sunlight and no moisture at all. After three months he checked the moisture of the core and it had dried out completely. He filled all of the voids with epoxy and re-textured the back deck.

[oldboat]

that is very innovative. i am not that familiar with the boat layout, but
are there any hatches you had to deal with?

[SEVEN]

Yes he had two of them. To be truthful I don’t even know if there was any core in the hatches. I just know that there was no holes drilled in them.

[Red Hatt]

I would not put anything that looks like tile on the aft deck of a boat. It's a boat not a sun room. The teak look would look much better in my opinion. But your the one that has to to live with it.

[bigbill]

did your boat have an aft deck escape hatch? did you cover over it?

[oscarvan]

Did you dry out the deck, or is the moisture now entombed for eternity?

[Pascal]

The early 53s has a escape hatch which I removed a couple of years ago.

Yes the moisture is entombed forever... the old laminate is no longer structural so it doesn’t matter.

The “tiles” I m going to use are either teak or acacia. The strips are mounted on a plastic frame that interlocks

Eventually I will real teak deck but for now that will do.