E38-200 Sea Hood Delaminating at Traveller Rail

[southofvictor]

In the past week I’ve noticed for the first time signs of delamination on the sea hood
in front of our traveller rail. As I dig into I wonder if anyone else has experienced the same. Also for those who have replaced their traveller rails (and others) do you recall how much of the sea hood was cored vs solid and if your bolts ran through solid glass or core material?
I’ve looked over a number of threads on traveller and sea hood removal but haven’t noticed anything specific about delamination or core material.
Here are a few photos. More pronounced bumps on port side but bumps
on both sides. Look like they may align with bolt spacing?
Thanks!

 

[bigd14]

That's odd. I recall that the bolts ran through solid glass and the core area started just forward of the traveler (where the nonskid starts). There is an aluminum piece embedded in the fiberglass that is threaded to accept the traveler bolts. I wonder if some of the bolts have come loose and the upward force from the mainsheet has caused the track, which on my boat was bonded with 5200 or something equally hearty, to lift the top sheet up. The row of 5 screws on the starboard aft corner of the seahood seems aftermarket. I wonder what those are about?

You may have already seen my blogs about removing the seahood, but if not, they may be helpful. I would guess the construction of the seahood is similar if not identical. Let us know what you find out. https://ericsonyachts.org/ie/ubs/authors/bigd14.3493/

 

[vanilladuck]

Most likely, water intrusion over the years has led the aluminum plate to corrode. The poultice corrosion will huff and puff and blow out the fiberglass. I had some decent delamination on mine and had to extract the aluminum plate:

Mounting the Last Resort on the E32-3 Sea Hood

I was taught to keep the FRP temp. down to where I could lay a hand on it at least briefly. Slow warming is better than too high a single-point of heat.

ericsonyachts.org

 

[southofvictor]

thanks guys! I’ll let you know how things progress……

 

[peaman]

Just today, I reinstalled my sea hood after removal/reinstallation of the rail, varnishing, etc. The rail was secured with 7 bolts which were threaded into a 1/4" thick aluminum bar which was encased in 1/4" solid glass above and below. Forward of that area, maybe 2-3" forward, balsa core blocks are visible through the glass on the bottom side. My hood has no bumps like the ones in your pictures. I had a heck of a time getting the traveller off due to corrosion at the stainless bolts through the aluminum rail. I redrilled each hole through the hood and re-secured the track with a fender washer and nylok nut on each new bolt.

 

[southofvictor]

Looks like my bolts are 5/16” hex heads slid into the bottom of a Harken Hi Beam track and through bolted with washers and lock washers underneath the sea hood. Pretty easy access so far but the track isn’t budging with all the fasteners removed. Given the way the gel coat is already lifting I don’t want to put too much pressure on it too fast. I don’t have any De-Bond but I made contact with someone today who does. I’ll probably wait for that to work on the sealant unless anyone has other ideas. Don’t want to heat it up too much either given the temps on it already when the sun is out.

Here are some pics of the process so far. The face piece of teak came out with four plugged screws. The rails that hold the sea hood down flexed enough when unscrewed to get the hood out. With that out of the way a regular 1/2” socket removed the fasteners.

If I’m looking at this right there’s moisture coming through but as @bigd14 experienced it looks to me like the core material is forward of these fasteners by 1/4” or more. Still stumped on why the top skin is bubbling.

 

[Loren Beach]

I admit freely that, not being an engineer, I do not know the relative strength developed by machine threads in, say, 3/8" G-10 flat plate VS 3/8" aluminum flat bar, but it seems intuitive that the old flat bar could be replaced with a piece of G-10. Then just cut threads into the G-10.
Perhaps? No more corrosion concerns.