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Oh no

3K views 22 replies 12 participants last post by  sailingdog 
#1 ·
I was just inside of my boat, San Juan 21, and looking around, seeing what needed to be done by summer, and I was met with a horrible surprise. I looked up at a bolt, and there was a drop of water on it. Inside the cabin. I climbed on top, and realized that there was a bit more give to the foredeck then there was a month ago..

I do not want to recore, what should I do??
 
#5 ·
Honestly, recoring would be a great project if you had very little invested in the boat and thought of it as an experiment. At 15, you'll get a pretty long leash to ask local pros for tips and advice. You could rent or borrow a Fein multi-tool and have at it and maybe end up with a summer job out of it as well. With all the older cored boats around, deck issues are more or less the norm. Knowing first hand how to deal with them would be money in the bank. It's a messy job, sure, but not incredibly difficult.
 
#7 ·
Good attitude. It might not be as bad as you fear. Pull the bolt out and whatever it's attached to and see if you can probe around inside the core wtih a bent nail or something to check the extent of it. It might be just localized around the one bolt and the sponginess you think you feel might be more imagination than anything else (at least I hope so for you). Tarp the area off and let it dry as much as possible if you suspect the area is wet, remove any other fittings in the area and try to determine how large it is. Good luck.
 
#10 · (Edited by Moderator)
Just to make you feel better my buddy recored his entire deck on his Alberg 35 in two weeks. Granted he worked everyday doing it for at least 4 hours each day, but he got it done pretty quickly. If you have it only in a localized area, you could get it done in a few weekends.

Weather you recore or not, if the deck is dry around the fitting, you want to pot the holes so you will not have worry about the core getting wet ever again.
 
#11 ·
I found something like that in a buddy's boat. We pulled the bolt and it was an isolated problem. we sealed the out side and used a de humidifier to dry out the inside of the boat. We later injected the area and resealed every place where water could seep in. just a few hours and we have never had a problem again.
 
#14 ·
If you're planning on recoring the deck, DO NOT INJECT EPOXY. It will make recoring the deck a lot more difficult. In fact, depending on how large an area is involved, recoring the deck may take less time than drilling and injecting epoxy, and if you're going to bother repairing it, you might as well do it the right way.
 
#16 ·
Recoring isn't that hard, just really messy and a bit pricey. Drill a couple holes to see how wet the core is and where it is rotted out. Then estimate your materials. I only did one side of my boat that was really wet. When the other side gets bad, I'll do that. Takes longer than you think, and alot of work "finishing" for it to look nice.
 
#17 ·
I'm very nervous about starting any project with the boat at this point, because I'm keeping it in the water starting sometime next month until sometime late fall, and if anything postpones my timing I'm not going to be pleased..
I sealed it all up, I am going to do a partial recore next fall and winter.
Along with my other hundreds of projects.. thanks for all the help guys!
 
#18 · (Edited)
Time to play the woodpecker, Leland. Drill a distribution of small holes (3/16" will do) around your drip or soft spot. I drilled 6" apart, roughly. The inner skin on the SJ21 is very thin -- less than 1/8". Balsa core is 3/8". Might want tape or a stop collar to prevent drilling thru the top skin! Observe the swarf that comes out: pale and powdery = dry; dark and or squishy, not so good. put a red marker dot next to the wet holes. Using this method, I've mapped out our soft spots pretty well: everything aft of the mast step is wet, basically. Our foredeck was fine, despite the stupid badly-installed slam hatch the PO had cut into it. Worst areas on a SJ21 are around the hatch slides, the grab bars, jib tracks, and winches; none of these penetrations were properly sealed, and Clark used 3/8"d washers as backing plates. DOH!

Good news: it really doesn't matter. Eighty percent of these boats have or had wet decks, and most of them sailed that way for many years. There's probably some compromise in structural integrity, but really a SJ21 rolled by a breaking wave has about a dozen other failure modes to kill you, so don't sweat the deck too much. Ours is wet; probably has been wet for a decade; we took it Catalina Island and back that way; we sail it in gale force winds that way; I'll fix it when I get to it. Stop the leaks as best you can: caulking won't do -- pull the hardware & rebed with a polyurethane sealant or bedding compound, and use the chance to install PROPER backing washers or plates. Rebedding all our deck hardware took two hours and cost under ten bucks.

Oh yeah -- if you get a chance, crawl back under the cockpit and drill a test hole near the lower rudder gudgeon bolts; the port-side 2/3rd of the transom is also balsa cored, and odds are pretty good that's wet too. Ours was. I'd address that before you worry about the decks. Structural weakening there could leave you w/ no rudder and a fist-sized hole at the waterline. I recored that gudgeon from the inside; it was quick and easy to do. Cheers!

ETA: before you panic ... it's possible the water was just condensation & the added deck sponge psychosomatic. Wet balsa leaches brown or orange water; you might also see white crustiness around fasteners if the water had leaked thru the decks. Don't underestimate how much condensation can build up on your cabin roof!
 
#20 ·
Time to play the woodpecker, Leland. Drill a distribution of small holes (3/16" will do) around your drip or soft spot. I drilled 6" apart, roughly. The inner skin on the SJ21 is very thin -- less than 1/8". Balsa core is 3/8". Might want tape or a stop collar to prevent drilling thru the top skin! Observe the swarf that comes out: pale and powdery = dry; dark and or squishy, not so good. put a red marker dot next to the wet holes. Using this method, I've mapped out our soft spots pretty well: everything aft of the mast step is wet, basically. Our foredeck was fine, despite the stupid badly-installed slam hatch the PO had cut into it. Worst areas on a SJ21 are around the hatch slides, the grab bars, jib tracks, and winches; none of these penetrations were properly sealed, and Clark used 3/8"d washers as backing plates. DOH!

Good news: it really doesn't matter. Eighty percent of these boats have or had wet decks, and most of them sailed that way for many years. There's probably some compromise in structural integrity, but really a SJ21 rolled by a breaking wave has about a dozen other failure modes to kill you, so don't sweat the deck too much. Ours is wet; probably has been wet for a decade; we took it Catalina Island and back that way; we sail it in gale force winds that way; I'll fix it when I get to it. Stop the leaks as best you can: caulking won't do -- pull the hardware & rebed with a polyurethane sealant or bedding compound, and use the chance to install PROPER backing washers or plates. Rebedding all our deck hardware took two hours and cost under ten bucks.

Oh yeah -- if you get a chance, crawl back under the cockpit and drill a test hole near the lower rudder gudgeon bolts; the port-side 2/3rd of the transom is also balsa cored, and odds are pretty good that's wet too. Ours was. I'd address that before you worry about the decks. Structural weakening there could leave you w/ no rudder and a fist-sized hole at the waterline. I recored that gudgeon from the inside; it was quick and easy to do. Cheers!

ETA: before you panic ... it's possible the water was just condensation & the added deck sponge psychosomatic. Wet balsa leaches brown or orange water; you might also see white crustiness around fasteners if the water had leaked thru the decks. Don't underestimate how much condensation can build up on your cabin roof!
The transom was recored a while back by a previous owner.
Thanks for the help, it's solid advice.
I'm not prepared to mess about right now, but when I am I plan on making sure EVERYTHING is watertight to the max. I'm just going to quit whining and sail, by the time I fix this I'll find something else that needs to be done, and I'll end up a marina queen. The boat floats and won't kill me atm, I'm postponing all glass work until.. later..
I just want to sail her, haha.

Are you really supposed to have all that gear when doing glass work?
I barely wear gloves, it's just fiberglass..?
 
#23 ·
I'd point out that the full-face mask respirators are far more comfortable and protective of you than the half-masks. Don't even think about using disposable masks—they're worthless.
 
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