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Post by geitz on Nov 4, 2018 15:08:09 GMT
Our S/O 36.2 has some wet core in the cabin top. We knew this when we bought it in 2015 and understood that I would be repairing it, eventually. Last year, I discovered where the water was leaking in. The dodger uses a plastic track screwed down to the cabin combing. There were many small screws holding the track to the combing, none of which were properly bedded, so I mitigated the problem by removing the strips, filling the holes with epoxy and then re-installing the strips using only 3M Extreme mounting tape.
I decided that this fall/winter would be a good time to jump in head first and repair the port side, which is accessible from the head. The plan is to re-core with 1/2" balsa, and marine grade plywood under the sheet stoppers and winch. I'll bond the core with West System epoxy, then laminate the inner skin with 1708 biaxial cloth. After removing the headliner, I began by drilling some test holes through the inner layer of fiberglass and into the core to get an idea how far the wet core extended. It went beyond the test holes so I masked off the area with plastic sheeting and began cutting out the inner layer with a oscillating saw.
The first cuts............
More.........
You can see the underside of the cabin-top combing and the drips of epoxy that I used to fill the screw holes. This feature was not cored with anything, just hollow, so make sure your dodger mounting screws are sealed properly! I was disappointed to see what a shabby job Jeanneau did to adhere the balsa core to the outer skin. There were a lot of voids between the core and the outer skin.
The core used under the sheet stoppers and winch is some type of hardwood. It is also wet.
I'll continue working my way aft until I run to the end of the wet core. The winch will have to be removed next. I'm leaving a ~2" border of old inner glass layer to bond the new glass to. Forward is the backing plate for the port side of the traveller. I'll have to remove the bolts and dig away at the core up to the tabbed in bulkhead. I'll need to leave the core above the bulkhead in place even if it's wet because the boat is on the cradle and I'm sure there's some upward pressure on the bulkhead. I'll update as I make progress. Mike
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Post by Don Reaves on Nov 4, 2018 17:45:09 GMT
Mike,
I can't see your pictures. I've tried Firefox, Chrome, and Safari on my iPad. None of them display your pictures. Did you put them on a site that requires login access?
Don
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Post by geitz on Nov 4, 2018 21:40:00 GMT
Hmm, I used Onedrive.............I'll check into it.
Mike
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Post by MartyB on Nov 6, 2018 5:34:48 GMT
After a few attemps playing with the first image...I did not get it to post up. I did seem to get the lettering to show.......It might have to do with a login to the host site. I'm not much of a puter brain.....
Maybe Malcolm or one of the other mods can figure out the what is wrong.
WOuld like to see this myself. As I have an issue with the wood under the mast step to deal with.
marty
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Post by geitz on Nov 6, 2018 13:49:21 GMT
After a few attemps playing with the first image...I did not get it to post up. I did seem to get the lettering to show.......It might have to do with a login to the host site. I'm not much of a puter brain..... Maybe Malcolm or one of the other mods can figure out the what is wrong. WOuld like to see this myself. As I have an issue with the wood under the mast step to deal with. marty
Marty, I rebuilt my mast step (deck under the mast, not the compression post) last year:
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Post by geitz on Nov 6, 2018 13:51:26 GMT
Are the pictures showing now?
mike
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Post by MalcolmP on Nov 6, 2018 15:04:28 GMT
Are the pictures showing now?
mike
Hi Mike First two only 🤔 but progress 😁 looks like you are doing a great job |
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Post by MalcolmP on Nov 6, 2018 17:31:15 GMT
Are the pictures showing now?
mike
Hi Mike First two only 🤔 but progress 😁 looks like you are doing a great job All four now showing ;-) |
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Post by puravida35 on Nov 6, 2018 17:46:10 GMT
Reminds me of a similar project I did on a Santa Cruz 27 many years ago. I had numerous areas of wet core on cabin top and side decks... almost any place gear was through bolted (tracks, blocks, organizers). Fortunately, most of the heavy load gear like primary and cabintop winches were mounted on solid glass, no core.
Based on your mast step repair, I’m sure you are doing a much better job than I did. In my case, I wasn’t much concerned about interior appearance since it was a shell of a boat anyway. I do miss the simplicity of that boat; 1 battery, 2 switches (nav lights & chart table light) and a bucket.
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Post by geitz on Nov 6, 2018 18:06:49 GMT
Hi Mike First two only 🤔 but progress 😁 looks like you are doing a great job All four now showing ;-)
Good! I found out how to add photos using MS-Onedrive.
Within OneDrive, right click the image, then click "Embed".
Click "Generate":
Select the URL to embed. Next, click on the "insert image" icon on the forum and paste the URL. Click "insert image". Done......
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Post by MartyB on Nov 7, 2018 5:15:35 GMT
Geitz,
Looking a bit more at how you did the mast step. Was preferring to go thru the bottom. But how you did the top looks better than how I was thinking of doing it, ie removing the whole triangular cover, then hope that came off with in one piece. You method also allows one to keep the top level per say......
pulling the mast in AM on the 16th. so will tackle that during the latter part of Nov into early Dec. Hope we do not get a week or two long freeze. Re wire mast etc to.
marty
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Post by geitz on Nov 7, 2018 20:50:22 GMT
Geitz, Looking a bit more at how you did the mast step. Was preferring to go thru the bottom. But how you did the top looks better than how I was thinking of doing it, ie removing the whole triangular cover, then hope that came off with in one piece. You method also allows one to keep the top level per say...... pulling the mast in AM on the 16th. so will tackle that during the latter part of Nov into early Dec. Hope we do not get a week or two long freeze. Re wire mast etc to. marty What's the triangular cover you're speaking of?
I thought long and hard whether to go through the inside or not. I settled on going through the outside for four reasons:
1) The top laminate was permanently deformed (concave).
1) Don't have to remove compression post. 2) No worries about getting the correct thickness of laminate inside, thus affecting the re-installation of the compression post. 3) less fiberglass dust inside.
Mike
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Post by MartyB on Nov 8, 2018 3:43:39 GMT
The triangular part I am referring too is the whole mast step per say. Look at it from the side you will see what I mean.
I have the issues you describe, slight indentation, water coming thru the wire holes. I may do a conduit inside the mast if I have room in the middle of the mast/mast step. Seems like a better option than still outside the mast.
Marty
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Post by geitz on Nov 9, 2018 2:46:33 GMT
That would work well. If your boat is like mine, you'd then have to cut a hole in the top hole of your compression post as well as the side, to run the wiring.
Mike
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Post by MartyB on Nov 9, 2018 2:56:21 GMT
Had not thought of that issue......
May noodle that one in a week or so when mast us pulled to see if I have room or not...
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Post by geitz on Feb 9, 2019 0:34:40 GMT
I haven't fallen off the earth............it's just been really cold and I can't work on the project. I'll continue when the temps get into the 40+ Fahrenheit range.
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Post by geitz on Mar 26, 2019 0:38:08 GMT
It's starting to warm up, giving us a chance to complete the project...........
The core under the sheet-stoppers and winch needed to be 1/2" marine-grade plywood. This will allow you to tighten the mounting bolts without the fear of compressing balsa core. I pre-cut a section, fitted it and then marked the existing mounting holes of the deck fittings so that I could "pot" the holes with thickened epoxy. Drill the holes out larger then needed and fill with thickened epoxy. Any water that might seep past the fastener won't be absorbed into the core. It's also a good idea to seal the entire piece with epoxy. Once it is hardened, wash it with soap and water to remove the "amine blush" before proceeding. Most epoxies exude a waxy substance once hardened. This "Amine Blush" will prevent subsequent layers from chemically bonding. Simply wipe with a wet towel........thoroughly.
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Post by geitz on Mar 26, 2019 0:44:53 GMT
Fill the traveller tower:
The molded tower that the end of the traveller is mounted on was filled with pieces of scrap wood and polyester filler. I removed as much as I could, then re-filled with marine grade plywood and thickened West System epoxy. This is the second layer, held in place with screws while the epoxy hardened.
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Post by geitz on Mar 26, 2019 0:54:10 GMT
Dry fitting the balsa core:
We dry fitted the last piece of marine plywood to the traveller tower, then proceeded with fitting the balsa. This will consume the most time in the rest of the project. Each section has to be hand-fit. Use a belt sander and/or a multi-tool to shape and taper the areas that are inserted into the edges. Take your time, but remember, it doesn't have to be a perfect fit because we're going to fill any voids with thickened epoxy:
The void shown was filled with another little square of marine plywood and thickened epoxy................
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Post by geitz on Mar 26, 2019 1:05:01 GMT
The core was dry-fitted and marked (mark all pieces because you will not remember where they go once you start glueing). After marking the positions of all the pieces, we layed them out on a table in order. Each piece was then "buttered" with thickened epoxy. The perimeter sections of the deck were also "buttered" copiously, so that when the perimeter pieces were pushed into place, epoxy oozed out while filling any voids. This is why you don't have to be perfect when fitting the core. You can take your time with epoxy, as long as it's not too warm outside. You have about a half hour to an hour before epoxy in the pot starts to catalyze. I had two other people helping. One was mixing batches of thickened epoxy, the other was helping wet out the the deck sections with plain epoxy and handing me the pre-marked sections of core. Also, with each piece of core, mark an outline on the existing deck of the edge of the new core, then you'll know that you have it pushed fully into place. This is really important when glueing in the perimeter core. (the scribbled out core is compliments of my brother, who wrote something nasty about myself, hoping that it would be forever preserved in the deck of this yacht).
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Post by geitz on Mar 26, 2019 1:33:03 GMT
More to come...............
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Post by MalcolmP on Mar 26, 2019 20:08:32 GMT
More to come...............
Well done Geitz, looks like really good progress on quite a challenging project. Looking forward to seeing the conclusion and a new total write up for Hints and Tips. 😀😀 Malcolm |
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Post by geitz on Mar 28, 2019 23:18:48 GMT
The next day, we used Dura-Glass polyester filler to fair in the varying levels of core and existing GRP edges. I felt this would help the fiberglass laminations lay flat. The polyester filler hardened in less than an hour and after a little breaking of ridges with 36 grit sandpaper, we were ready to laminate the glass.
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Post by geitz on Mar 28, 2019 23:35:48 GMT
The inner laminate was one layer of 18 ounce woven roving and one layer of 1708 bi-axial with 3/4 ounce mat. I had pre-cut separate pieces for forward and aft of the false bulkhead that is between the sink and the head. I thought they'd be more manageable. Before my friend arrived, I started with the first schedule of woven roving in the aft section. After wetting out the surface of the core, I applied the roving onto the surface and immediately learned that two hands is not enough. It was falling on me while I was trying to get it to stay put. After a long struggle, and ending up with plenty of epoxy resin on my head and clothing, it was in place. I spent the next 15 minutes rolling the glass to make sure it was fully wetted. Once my friend arrived, we instead fully wetted out the fabric on a makeshift table, wetted the core surface, then with four hands applied the fabric to the core. That worked much better and didn't require as much rolling to get the fabric completely wetted and bubble free.
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