Cabintop Core Moisture

[Lloyd Moore]

The balsa core in the cabintop of my Ericson 35 became saturated. I didn't know how the water was getting in until I began the repair - it turned out the original construction of the dorade box was faulty. Inside the box (all 3 chambers), the seal between the slanted sides of the box and the cabintop was not complete, and water had been seeping in since the boat was new. Eventually the cabintop got spongy.

After rejecting the yard's proposal ($20K+ for labor) which basically involved taking a chainsaw to the cabintop, I did the repair myself, from the inside, with a lot of help from my new friends at Fiberglass Supply, Inc.

I learned how to do a job I never intend doing again, and a lot about my boat. I took out all the wet balsa core, and replaced it with the same material. Learning to stick resin-soaked balsa and fiberglass cloth/mat to the ceiling over your head was a challenge.

If you own an Ericson 35 of the same vintage, and have more moisture inside than you want, check the dorade.

 

[Loren Beach]

Twenty Thousand Dollars!?

At our local labor rate of around $65., they proposed to spend about 308 hours minimum. Since there are 168 hours in a standard month, that's one man full time for darned near two months!

I think that the main purpose of their quote was to get rid of you rather than to solicit your business.

Heck, for "only" 10K, I would have fixed it...


Loren in Portland, OR

ps: do you have any photos of the project to post?

 

[Geoff Johnson]

I understand that is a design defect in the 35-3 model. After learning this, I checked my 32-3; it has a polyethelene catch basin inside the dorade, which hopefully will avoid the problem on my boat.

 

[Lloyd Moore]

You're right about wanting to get rid of me - their quote was actually 400 hours labor! I figure spent about 100 hours on this project. Many of those hours were just staring at the mess and making sure I knew what to do next.

I have a few photos, but they don't give a very good perspective.

If there is any interest, I thought I could document the whole process in a couple of pages, to be added to the owner projects. I have to believe there are other E35-3s out there with the same problem, although most of these boats are 15+ years old, and have probably been fixed before now.

 

[Sean Engle]

Me too -

I know I would like to see them. I've got sealing my boxes on my short list - and it was supposed to have been done this summer, but it never happened. My PO loaded my boxes with silicone - so that has to be removed first - although I think I just found a solvent for it...

If you want to do a project page on the site, you're certainly welcomed to - I, for one, would love to see what you've done...

//sse