E27 Deck Core Repair Questions

[Matt H]

I am the proud new owner of a '73 Ericson 27. Of course there is a rather lengthy list of upgrades, repairs and general maintenance needed.

First on my list is probably the most involved project needed on the boat. The deck floor in the cockpit area - from the collar area around the tiller (not sure of the actual name of that piece) to the area leading to the companionway is rather spongy. I done a far amount of research regarding core rot and replacement and believe I'm up for the task.

I have a few questions for anyone who may have tackled such a project.

First, the area is accessible from below (although, a rather tight area to work). Would it make sense to cut this area out from below, clean it out, apply the foam core and re-glass the area below? I guess the advantage here would be that I'm not dealing with the waffle non-skid area above. The downside is the working area is so tight.

Second, if I work from the top instead, I would have the cut away the skin with the waffle non-skid. Since I'm not removing the entire cockpit floor, would it make sense to grind out the remaining waffle non-skid so it's smooth like the repaired area and then paint the entire cockpit deck with non-skid paint?

If anyone has any experience with this type of repair, your insight is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Matt

 

[Mark F]

Hi Matt,

Welcome to the forum. Look below this message in the "similar threads" box. The first one 1969 e32... Might be of interest to you.

 

[bigd14]

Hi Matt- You are going to run into some trouble doing the work from underneath due to the liner. You will have to cut out the liner larger than the repair area (to be able to bond the repair area to the surrounding area), then remove the bottom skin. I recommend a battery powered circular saw set just deep enough to cut whichever layer you are dealing with for this step. Some parts of the liner are bonded in place to the bottom skin of the cockpit with "mish mash" which is quite troublesome stuff to remove. Also, I don't know how much the liner in that area contributes to the structural integrity of the aft end of the boat, but it seems like it should also be restored if you go this route. Working with fiberglass from underneath is very challenging. There are many tricks to learn in order to do this succesfully! You might also do some research on www.plasticclassicforum.com. Many people have done just what you will be doing and there is lots of good advice and experience there doing it both ways. You can view my recore project (not in the cockpit) under Projects, Ericson 27 Project

If the gelcoat/nonskid is in good condition and you are really dedicated to keeping it, you may want to try it from underneath. If you want to avoid the frustration an annoyance of lying on your side or back while trying to get enough leverage to make power tools work upside down, getting epoxy in your hair, etc. cut it out from the top. To see if you want to try it from underneath, first take your sander or grinder down under there with you and (without turning it on), see if you can reach all the areas you need to, and also see how long you can hold it up against the bottom of the cockpit. If you can last at least 10 minutes in this position, you might have a chance. Oh, and to make it as realistic as possible, put on your respirator, face shield, earplugs, gloves and tyvek suit!


Well, you see where I am going with this. If I were doing it, I would remove the top skin, making the cut about 2 inches inside the nonskid area, leaving a flange all the way around to tie in the new fiberglass. You will have to dig out the core. Also, when you mix up your thickened epoxy, to stuff under the flanges and bed the new core, I recommend adding a little milled fiberglass to help strengthen the mix. Three layers of 1708 biaxial fiberglass over the top, fill and fair, and paint on the KiwiGrip and the job is done. Or you could use the G10 board like Tenders did in the thread that Mark F. mentioned.

Oh, one other thing, no matter which side you work from make sure you mask the hell out of everything, I mean EVERYTHING, within 15 feet of the job. It will be VERY messy!

Good luck and let us know what you decide to do.

Doug

 

[tenders]

I said everything I could think of in my thread on this except that there is no way in hell I would have done this from underneath. There is a lot of entropy already working against you on this kind of repair, you do not need to add the primal force of gravity to the list.

Was just on the boat today thinking how well this repair turned out. If I had to do it again I might have extended the repair just a little into the remaining waffle pattern, or removed it with the grinder, or filled it with epoxy before painting with the nonskid granules. But that's about it.

G10 all the way, that stuff is strong and easy to work with once it's cut.

 

[bigd14]

Tender's, reading through your post again, I think I would definitely go the G10 route. I actually may have to since I discovered that my cockpit floor is saturated. Thankfully its still mostly sound, so hopefully it can wait a few years. Should have done it when I did the rest of the boat...

 

[Matt H]

Thanks everyone for the great advice. I think I will end up doing the repair from the top rather than from below. Tender's thread really lays it all out nicely.

Thanks!

Matt

 

[bigd14]

One thing that will be different from Tender's install is the raised area (collar as you called it) around the rudder shaft. There is a piece of marine plywood underneath the collar which hopefully is in good condition. I think you will have to leave this part intact and work around it. Otherwise you will need to re-create the height differential or cut the rudder shaft down slightly (or maybe it would be ok to have the rudder hang down another 1/8 to 1/4 inch?).

 

[tenders]

That little bit of extra height is to keep water from pooling around the hole and fasteners and leaking into the core. It's a good feature but a complicated one to rebuild. My '69 did not have that incorporated in the glass, and instead had a 3/4" piece of mahogany sandwiched between the bronze rudderpost plate and the deck, caulked with polysulfide , and over time it did not prevent water from getting through. I replaced it with Starboard and butyl tape, but it will still need to be watched carefully.

You could epoxy a thin shim of G10 on top of the repair to avoid lengthening the rudder post by that little bit. I didn't even think of doing this with my repair, but I would have then had to cut through 3/4" of G10 at an angle with a big hole saw - a very tough thing to do. If my repair leaks a little I'm expecting the foam core won't rot the way the balsa did.