Behold... a deck is made stiff.

Before.


After cutting off the top skin.


After digging out the wet balsa, and removing the well adhered stuff.

Semi-finished product. Prior to picking up the pile of sticky gloves. At the moment she is tied up with two bowlines around the bow chocks and tightly looped down under the stem. The dock lines are tied to each side of the loop created by the bowline, and the spring line is tied to the port side dock line. We spent a few minutes figuring out how to keep her tied up without a bow cleat!

Thanks goes to my good buddy Rob, for helping out and itching along side me as this project happened. (Whose shoes are pictured in the first picture...)

This weekend, we removed the bow pulpit, and bow cleat. Then cut the top skin off of the foredeck with a circular saw, and chiseled and peeled, and scraped off the wet planks of Balsawood. Planks, not end grain... interesting! The planks tapered around the edges of the deck, and at the base of the cabin top. We then cleaned out under the edges and packed the edges full of thickened epoxy and waited for it to kick during lunch. Cabosil and ground glass fibers, as I'm not a fan of cabosil alone in epoxy for gap filling, just a little to much like rock candy. Then we cut the balsawood to fit with a fillet knife and smushed it into place using thickened epoxy. By this point the top skin had been cleaned up, all the dry mat (lots...) ground off of the bottom wiped with acetone, and weighted down. 10:30 Saturday night...

Thanks to the Capt Rob of the scallop boat Doris Jean of Point Pleasant, NJ for loaning a 500 watt halogen light which made it all possible, and kept moral high by providing a steady stream of jokes and stories. Hope our paths cross again soon.

Sunday morning was enjoyable. Stepping onto the deck at 9:00 was reassuring, as it was stiff even without any fiberglass! A mad dash of grinding, fiberglassing, and threatening anyone doing a rain dance to have their feet removed with a random orbit sander. (Well not really, but it makes for a better story! Grin.)

Three layers of 17 ounce biax is in place on the deck, and nearly flush. I did not add any fairing compound to the top, as I'll be removing the crazed gelcoat prior to paint. We left the fiberglass tape a little wider than it needed to be (Thanks for cutting it Rob!) and figure that whatever overlaps higher than it needs to will disappear during the fairing process with the gelcoat.

Note: Three sides are glassed in, I'll be back thursday and will be adding fiberglass reinforcing inside the deck core where the duct tape currently resides. We brought the new core back to the start of the cabin top for that purpose. The other side will be done the same way, with hopes of adding a little strength, and never having any space bigger than 2x4 feet rot from water intrusion ever again.

Note 2: A few supports were placed under the deck to retain the camber of the stock deck, rather than let it relax and become a flat deck.

Dinky was also placed on deck. I will remake her a little wider, but the boom needs to be raised a few inches. The boom vang also has some interference, and the lines led aft will either need a cover made over them, or a rack to support Dinky to keep them running clear.



Zach