decks,why this winter project?

[J.P.Vallejo]

:confused: well would you belive I did start a deck project while it was still raining .
my 1938 edson shock cutter had been a bit wet and did leak over the bunks .
But as I started to scrap the paint crackings of what I thought was a old canvas deck gone bad . I started to chase the water intrusion along thirty years of pastel colors and sand non skid mixed in on top of a bad layer of fiber glass and lots of resins, oh did I mention the red hand or is it bondo filler .
think I was done ?
next I came up to a thin vanear door skin 1/18 thick glued and tacked down to a toung and grove deck at the forward end the deck looked fair except they laid the vanear skin over some 5 different holes for heaters air cowls and chain holes for a whinch now gone where ever.
as I removed the stantions and mahogany trim to the house and worked to the stearn the layers where all soaked and weak in strenth.
then at the stearn the deck was lower with no crown to the deck allowing water to collect and soak the toung and grove looked to be replaced with straight grain fir planks but as I dug and poked the deck beams or carlins are shot.
I liked what mr Ian Wright preaches but wow I hate winter his logic sound fine and true .
I think I need to pull the 2"x4'x16" stearn cap of teak over the transom to free the deck plank ends to have proper access to the deck beams :confused:
well I guesse there is no discousion to a bad deck where I am at is the humility and lack of self confidence to feel good about it I just wanted to go sailing and get a new mainsail and preform well in this years master mariners reggatta on san francisco bay I don't want to jury rig anything to compromise the boat in her strenth and caracture and when will I build the stenth of my carecture and redo the bad planks you know the leaky ones while the boat is sailing .
Oh well time will tell and from here on it's assholes and elbows , oh was I talking in toungs

[John R Smith]

JP

you have my sympathy. It's always a real low when you start into something you hoped would be straightforward, like replacing deck canvas, and it turns into a major repair. It sounds like the previous owners have done you no favours at all -instead of fixing the deck properly in the past, it has been patched up badly over and over again.

Now, instead of maintenance, you have deck beams and carlins to replace. Let's hope you have the boat safely laid up where you can work on her easily. It sounds as if your most sensible route will be to completely remove the existing deck, replace beams as required, then lay a new marine ply deck and sheath it with glass cloth and epoxy. Sounds easy if you say it quickly, I know . . .

John

[Peter Malcolm Jardine]

Sounds familiar. I bought my boat and thought I had a stuck piston ring. pulled the generator, the motor, complete rebuild, new wiring, new plumbing, paint, batteries, (bilge area overhaul)

The up side? The work is satisfying in its own right, and you end up with a boat you can trust. It always looks bigger than it is by the way. It's amazing how much work can get done in a day. :D