Strengthen the Hull

[Labied]

Hi,
Here is my story. Last year I bought a Stevenson Weekend Yacht. The first one built in the UK by an enthusiastic novice. I guess he did not do a bad job. It could have been better. I am not complaining.
However, I have found that the weakness that my hairdresser turned boat builder gent had. It is in the cockpit area. Some part of the cockpit is poorly covered with fibreglass and very thick paint. The paint has cracked and water seeped in causing the plywood to get wet and splinter.
I removed all the paint and the fibre glass sheets and got down to bear wood. I have decided to leave it to dry and have a go at the week end restoring it.
Here is my plane:
I am planning to soak it in some Ronseal Wet Rot Wood Hardener The product manufacturer’s claim the following characteristics:
• Ideal for preparing rotten areas of wood prior to filling
• Specially formulated to bind and harden decaying wood fibres
• Provides a solid base for repair
• Use on rotting areas of wood

I will the seal the wood with epoxy resin and finally paint it with white gloss. I am hoping that the paint will protect the Epoxy, as I am told that Epoxy is not IV stable. I also need to get it to match the rest of the boat interior.
If any out there have a better or easier method of making the wooden hull of boat stronger and lasts longer I will appreciate any advice. Please remember in the UK we may have different Brand names to some material than that in the USA.
Thank you in advance
Labied

[Hughman]

What part of the cockpit? What we need to know is if the rot is in a structural area, which this fix might not suffice.

Otherwise these rot-fixers will do until you can replace the plywood entirely.

I'm a little confused by the use of "hull" and "cockpit" to describe the same area. Maybe a picture would help.

[ 07-06-2004, 11:47 PM: Message edited by: Hughman ]

[sdowney717]

I dont think I would want to use that stuff on the plywood.
If the splintery wood is not rotten, why not thoroughly saturate with epoxy all the loose pieces. Use a screwdriver force apart the layers and get epoxy down into the plywood core. then lightly press it together using a backerboard till it sets. Fill any low spots with epoxy mixed with sawdust.
Then just cover all the plywood with several coats of epoxy, sand and paint it. You dont need the glass cloth.

[Bruce Hooke]

Once plywood has started to delaminate, which I'm guessing is what yours has started to do, my experience has been that there is really only one good solution -- rip out the bad stuff and replace it. The one exception I would make is if it's really just a very small area, say less than a few square centimeters and if you can really dry the area out and if failure of the area would not sink the boat. In that case hitting it with some rot hardener and then injecting as much epoxy as you can into the area may take care of things.

Remember that when replacing bad plywood you don't have to replace the whole sheet if you can find suitable areas to either make scarfs (tricky to do in place) or put in backing pieces to connect the new with the old.

[Bob Smalser]

...causing the plywood to get wet and splinter. Is a Weekender old enuf to develop rot in your cold climate? I thought these were all fairly new boats. And even with paint failure, delam shouldn't happen if exterior grade ply was used.

Or is the "splintering" merely the plywood surface checking?

If it's delamming....then the ply need replacing. If just checking...common in fir ply... then epoxy and fabric protected by primer and paint should be adequate.

Stevenson's have their own forum and you can talk to the designer directly. http://www.messing-about.com/index.html

On somebody else's boat, I also check topside and transom fasteners to make sure they have adequate sealant beneath. Unsealed fasteners poking into plywood will leak water into the laminations and eventually delam them.

[ 07-09-2004, 01:16 AM: Message edited by: Bob Smalser ]