Hey,
I've recently bought my first boat (a 15 foot seahog style fishing boat) and whilst I was super thorough checking the engine and hull which are all in great condition, I've noticed the deck is spongy in spots.
After drilling pilot holes, there is basically nowhere on the deck that isn't either delaminated or has a thoroughly soaked ply base. The wood is places is soft, but not black pith.
The main stringer is rotten at the bow and wet throughout and probably not structurally sound.
I am going to tackle this job myself.
I have no boat repairing experience.
I have made two successful surfboards so have a little experience fiberglassing.
I don't have all the best tools but have quite a range of standard tools (drills, angle grinder, circular saws etc).
With that in mind, from those of you that are more experienced is there anything I absolutely must know before I start chopping the deck up?
What wood should I use for replacement stringer?
I do not have an electric sander so have ordered an attachment for my drill which I hope can suffice. When I made surfboards, I hand sander for ten plus hours, don't fancy that again.
I have ordered 450g cloth and a roll of strong neat topping cloth along with about 5kg of resin.
After cutting out patches of deck I can see the plywood is about 10mm thick, but will order 12 or 18mm ply to replace.
The deck is roughly 2.5 x 1.5m. A little more if I go right up into the cabin and right back to the stern.
If I am to cover that much wood in resin and then glass it, do you think I'll need another 5kg of resin?
Thanks in advance
Edit - lessons learned so far
Tools used
I've recently bought my first boat (a 15 foot seahog style fishing boat) and whilst I was super thorough checking the engine and hull which are all in great condition, I've noticed the deck is spongy in spots.
After drilling pilot holes, there is basically nowhere on the deck that isn't either delaminated or has a thoroughly soaked ply base. The wood is places is soft, but not black pith.
The main stringer is rotten at the bow and wet throughout and probably not structurally sound.
I am going to tackle this job myself.
I have no boat repairing experience.
I have made two successful surfboards so have a little experience fiberglassing.
I don't have all the best tools but have quite a range of standard tools (drills, angle grinder, circular saws etc).
With that in mind, from those of you that are more experienced is there anything I absolutely must know before I start chopping the deck up?
What wood should I use for replacement stringer?
I do not have an electric sander so have ordered an attachment for my drill which I hope can suffice. When I made surfboards, I hand sander for ten plus hours, don't fancy that again.
I have ordered 450g cloth and a roll of strong neat topping cloth along with about 5kg of resin.
After cutting out patches of deck I can see the plywood is about 10mm thick, but will order 12 or 18mm ply to replace.
The deck is roughly 2.5 x 1.5m. A little more if I go right up into the cabin and right back to the stern.
If I am to cover that much wood in resin and then glass it, do you think I'll need another 5kg of resin?
Thanks in advance
Edit - lessons learned so far
- Don't buy an old boat unless you want to spend a lot of time fixing it lol
- When cutting out a deck try to cut as close to the edges/sides of the hull as possible
- When lifting a 40hp+ engine get Two people or an engine stand with wheels
- Marine ply is super expensive, have enough budget for this
- Loads more upcoming mistakes to learn from!
- https://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/threads/rebuilding-of-f-v-doghouse.16614865/page-24
- https://www.worldseafishing.com/for...task-force-q18.22744401/page-15#post-52478325
- https://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/threads/cjr-14-refurb-2011-12.743205/page-2
- https://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/threads/dory-rebuild-questions.11734946/
- https://www.worldseafishing.com/for...the-up-slowwwly.4021821/page-18#post-52486307
- https://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/threads/dell-quay-17-sportsman-foam-removal.1886848/page-5
- https://www.worldseafishing.com/forums/threads/pilot-590-refurb.35574749/page-2
- Fitting transducer without drilling the transom
- Filling engine mount holes
Tools used
- Angle grinder for cutting up fiberglass and cutting off old rotten bolts
- Thin cutting disk
- Grinding disk
- Have ordered a diamond etched tile cutting disc to see if that's better
- Have ordered various sanding pads and discs in an effort not to buy a dedicated sander
- Hammer, chisel and crowbar for pulling up old ply
- Screwdrivers
- Socket sets and torque wrench (13mm and 19mm sockets are gold dust for this boat)
- Circular saw
- Multitool was great for the 30 minutes it lasted before it broke and created way less dust
- Spanners
- Pliers
- Drill obviously for drilling but have used to drill out rusted bolts too
- Wire brush attachment to clean up metal and dig out old rotten wood
- Wire cutters
- Wd40 to loosen old bolts
- Sikaflex 291i Marine Adhesive
- Cascamite
- Big boy filler
- Crestomer bonding paste
- Toolstation Everbuild Puraflex 40. a high modulus polyurethane adhesive & sealant available in black or white price £4.04 300ml tube.
- Balcotan - general purpose marine adhesive