Deckhouse hole reinforcement

[ron7546]

OK- the project is finally coming together.Started last fall gathering material for leading everything aft.BUT-new waterlift system,new AC wiring and etc. trumpted in.The mast plate is in ,the winches are installed with .187" s-s backer plates(which are hidden in the little compartments by the companionway on an E27). The holes are drilled for the organizers and rope clutches.Question being? ? ? I read a lot about removing core material and filling with Epoxy. I find on my 1976 E27 very little core material and about
1 1/4" of deck thickness.I wonder if it is necessary to remove and epoxy and if so do I drill a larger hole than necessary (to accomodate the mtg. hardware) to accomplish the task and redrill? ? To what extent do I go?
Ron
"Bluenote"

 

[gareth harris]

I am having a hard time figuring out what it is you are describing. It sounds like running the mast rigging to the cockpit.

If the deck, just forward of the cockpit, is 1.25" thick, but with no core, what material are you finding? Solid resin, resin mixed with glass, filler material, or is it unbonded with a large amount of air/remnants of rotten core?

The purpose of drilling out the core and filling with epoxy is to prevent water intrusion into the core material. The other concern is making sure the deck is strong enough to take the load you will apply, which if you are installing rigging components will be very large.

Gareth
Freyja E35 #241 1972

 

[ron7546]

I will try to explaine better

Sorry,I am adding deck organizers and rope clutches on top of my cabin.One set to port one set to starboard.No sign of rot. At this point I have only drilled 1/4 inch holes and can`t really determine what the core material is.If I indeed need to reinforce(and it sounds like I should) How large a hole should I drill to accomplish this. I understand an allen wrench in a drill works well for removing core material .I`d prefer the reinforcement doesn`t show from under the organizers and clutches

Thank for the help
Ron

 

[Emerald]

Hi Ron,

I haven't been hands on the 35, but in general, Ericson used balsa core throughout the deck with the exception of high load areas where they used plywood. High load areas would be under cleats, stanchions, winches, and the mast step. If you are working close the to mast area, you may have one or more layers of solid plywood. I honestly don't remember if your mast is deck stepped, so there might be some variation here. Emerald is deck stepped, and when I did some core repair I found it's actually a "deck club sandwich" of multiple layers of glass and plywood (glass, ply, glass, ply, glass). Here's a picture of the deck of the Independence 31 (from the sales brochure) showing these areas. See if you can find something like this on your boat in the docs section of this site - or perhaps someone who knows this model better than I can jump in with what they did where.

 

[gareth harris]

I think I understand exactly what you are trying to do now. I recommend this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Sailboat-Repa...3835251?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1187314227&sr=8-4

It goes into what you are doing in a lot of detail.

For your project, my preferred method is just to drill a larger hole than you need (probably 1/2" for a 1/4" bolt), fill it with thickened epoxy, then redrill it after it sets, but there are others on this web site who prefer the allen wrench in the drill method (I found I destroyed allen wrenches pretty quickly doing that).

The key to the strength of the clutch is in the backing, you will most likely need to cut holes in the headliner for very large washers to go on the underside of the deck; or, for maximum strength, get a machine shop to make up a backing plate with holes cut for all the bolts of the clutch.

I hope that makes sense, let me know if you have any more questions.

Gareth
Freyja E35 #241 1972

 

[windjunkee]

I agree with Gareth,

We added a 3 rope clutch and deck organizer to the starboard cabin top of our 32. We did this to accommodate our spin halyard, spare halyard and boom vang. We had found leaking around the rope clutch already on the boat on the port side and it was leaking into the cabin right were the majority of our electronics are. So, we did what Gareth suggested. Drilled the holes out larger than required. We filled the holes with Git Rot and let it harden, then drilled again, through the headliner. This way the bolt passages were epoxy and if there was any leakage, it didn't run down the bolt and soak into the surrounding area. We've had no leakage problems since they were installed.

Jim McCone
Voice of Reason E-32-2 Hull #134
Redondo Beach, CA

 

[Rocinante33]

(I found I destroyed allen wrenches pretty quickly doing that).

Instead of an allen wrench, bend a large nail (16d?) to 90 degrees and rotate that in the drill chuck.