Vincentc
Legendary Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2008
- Messages
- 1,514
- Status
- OWNER - I own a Hatteras Yacht
- Hatteras Model
- 43' DOUBLE CABIN (1970 - 1984)
Lilly Marie has had a leak around the hatch going up to the Fly Bridge and the problem graduated to the point that the deck forward of the hatch rim had collapsed.
It took a while to get in the mood to tackle another coring repair after the aft deck and cabin top projects, but the hatch was leaking on the new sofa.
I removed some of the teak trim around the underside of the hatch. The removal of the aft piece would require removal of the ladder and it was not leaking back there.
I used a dremel mini skill saw and an angle grinder to cut out two pieces of deck on the fwd and stbd sides of the hatch rim. The core in that area was a black mush except for a few spots where there the coring was covered with polyester resin. Those spots were wet balsa which I removed with a hard sharp scraper. Using the scraper and a shop vac I removed about a 3 inch perimeter of rotten balsa around the opening.
I cut pieces of 15mm (5/8) marine plywood sufficient to cover the clear space. The pieces were small enough so that I could put a piece in the opening and slide it over under the decking forming the perimeter around the opening. It took some pushing to force the deck back up into its original position. The plywood was coated with 2 part epoxy, (Raka.com brand sells for about $60 per gallon. With the plywood in place, I poured in epoxy thickened with the the white very light filler (not cabo-sil, which is very hard to sand) and then replaced the two cut out fg deck pieces. I covered it all with vis-queen then put boards and weights on top of the decking to hold the decking and cut outs in place. This work Saturday morning did not prevent us from having a nice Island trip Saturday afternoon.
The additional work was done Sunday. Once cured the filled epoxy which had squeezed out, came off easily with an 80 grit disk sander. I filled the cracks with more filled epoxy then sanded it smooth.
In its earlier life, Lilly Marie spent some time in Ohio, I wonder if freezing may have contributed to the widespread wet coring which includes the fwd deck, aft deck, side deck and the hardtop.
It took a while to get in the mood to tackle another coring repair after the aft deck and cabin top projects, but the hatch was leaking on the new sofa.
I removed some of the teak trim around the underside of the hatch. The removal of the aft piece would require removal of the ladder and it was not leaking back there.
I used a dremel mini skill saw and an angle grinder to cut out two pieces of deck on the fwd and stbd sides of the hatch rim. The core in that area was a black mush except for a few spots where there the coring was covered with polyester resin. Those spots were wet balsa which I removed with a hard sharp scraper. Using the scraper and a shop vac I removed about a 3 inch perimeter of rotten balsa around the opening.
I cut pieces of 15mm (5/8) marine plywood sufficient to cover the clear space. The pieces were small enough so that I could put a piece in the opening and slide it over under the decking forming the perimeter around the opening. It took some pushing to force the deck back up into its original position. The plywood was coated with 2 part epoxy, (Raka.com brand sells for about $60 per gallon. With the plywood in place, I poured in epoxy thickened with the the white very light filler (not cabo-sil, which is very hard to sand) and then replaced the two cut out fg deck pieces. I covered it all with vis-queen then put boards and weights on top of the decking to hold the decking and cut outs in place. This work Saturday morning did not prevent us from having a nice Island trip Saturday afternoon.
The additional work was done Sunday. Once cured the filled epoxy which had squeezed out, came off easily with an 80 grit disk sander. I filled the cracks with more filled epoxy then sanded it smooth.
In its earlier life, Lilly Marie spent some time in Ohio, I wonder if freezing may have contributed to the widespread wet coring which includes the fwd deck, aft deck, side deck and the hardtop.
Last edited:
