Hi all,
Looks like my first "huge" project of boat ownership is unfolding before me.
A month or two back, I noticed water droplet evidence in the forward starboard bulkhead. Then my girlfriend noticed the books in the bookshelf under the heater were wet. Then, I noticed a stream of water coming in from the chimney - ah ha. I promptly stopped using my diesel heater and covered it up until I could take a better look.
The exterior chimney consisted of a wood block silicon-ed to the deck, and metal plates / guards mounted on the block to protect the chimney stack.
Long story short, everything was siliconed together but the deck block rotted away (and is now destroyed) but worse, the block was covering up an old hole as well as the currrent chimney hole, neither of which were water protected in the slightest and the deck core has completed rotted, if not vaporized completely.
Some pictures are below. I don't know where to start, here - looks like I will probably have to sawzall out the deck and replace the core with some new marine ply, right? How can I gauge the extent of the rot? I'm concerned the bulkhead is getting it too, pic of that at the bottom of the post.
I know worse boats than mine have been restored to better shape, but this is pretty scary stuff. Is it all going to be ok!?
Looks like my first "huge" project of boat ownership is unfolding before me.
A month or two back, I noticed water droplet evidence in the forward starboard bulkhead. Then my girlfriend noticed the books in the bookshelf under the heater were wet. Then, I noticed a stream of water coming in from the chimney - ah ha. I promptly stopped using my diesel heater and covered it up until I could take a better look.
The exterior chimney consisted of a wood block silicon-ed to the deck, and metal plates / guards mounted on the block to protect the chimney stack.
Long story short, everything was siliconed together but the deck block rotted away (and is now destroyed) but worse, the block was covering up an old hole as well as the currrent chimney hole, neither of which were water protected in the slightest and the deck core has completed rotted, if not vaporized completely.
Some pictures are below. I don't know where to start, here - looks like I will probably have to sawzall out the deck and replace the core with some new marine ply, right? How can I gauge the extent of the rot? I'm concerned the bulkhead is getting it too, pic of that at the bottom of the post.
I know worse boats than mine have been restored to better shape, but this is pretty scary stuff. Is it all going to be ok!?