Repairing Upper Helm Deck

[NedZ]

My, new to me, Albin trawler has soft spots on the upper helm deck. The previous owner tried a DIY repair that was unsuccessful. It's been suggested to me that I can do this repair by removing the fiberglass and any underlying rot and replace it with a synthetic composite honeycomb material before reglassing the surface. Have any of you done this? What composite material did you use? Thanks.

 

[PM]

I tore off my teak, let it dry well and covered with 3/8 plywood and fiberglass resin and cloth above and below the plywood. Finished it off with white vinyl which I am not real happy with. I may cover it with pontoon boat type decking. I'll just apply it over the vinyl.

pete

 

[NedZ]

Thanks Pete. I have thought about that approach, minus the vinyl. BTW, are you aware of a good midwest source of strong bimini frames and the canvas itself?

 

[Gmarr]

Thanks Pete. I have thought about that approach, minus the vinyl. BTW, are you aware of a good midwest source of strong bimini frames and the canvas itself?

Fairwinds in Racine do a good job.

 

[firehoser75]

Ned,
When I bought my boat, the surveyor found some wet core material in the upper deck/roof over the cockpit caused by some leaking roof penetrations.
I hired a fibreglass guy who: cut out the lower fibreglass skin; removed a fairly large area of wet plywood (core); used heaters to dry everything well; installed new plywood using lots of epoxy; applied a new lower fibreglass layer; and applied the gelcoat finish. If the area requiring repair had been much larger, we probably would have done it from above, instead of below as worked well in this case.

I then also rebedded any penetrations such as stanchion bases, and removed the main culprit in this case, a base to support an upper deck dinghy cradle. I now mount my dinghy on the swim grid using a Sea Wise davit.
I am very careful about maintaining good penetration sealing, and have done my best to eliminate and/or minimize any "roof" penetrations.

 

[Comodave]

I would just cut the top fiberglass and get rid of the bad core. Put in your choice of new core material well bedded in thickened epoxy. Then lay the glass deck back on top of the new core again well bedded in thickened epoxy. Then grind a shallow area along the cuts in the deck and lay a layer or 2 of 1708 across the saw cuts. Fair it out with thickened epoxy. Then paint the deck with Kiwigrip. Done.

 

[Comodave]

Another thought, go to Compass Marine and look at his articles about how to bed fittings on a deck properly. He is very good and has excellent articles.