Things are getting serious. We’ve taken the teak off back to the face of the coachroof and did a little deck prep for filling the bazillion screw holes with thickened epoxy this week. If you cover one eye and disregard anything aft of the port lights, the deck is actually starting to look pretty good.
I scraped all the black bedding with the help of my trusty Fein. If you have a boat and don’t have one of these tools then you don’t know what you’re missing. Every hole got drilled out and chamfered, and the entire deck got a rubdown with 60 grit before washing with acetone. Then came the sad news. After ringing out the deck and doing some probing around, it’s looking like the best way to deal with the wet deck core is to just cut it open, dry it out and replace what’s bad with new balsa. The deck screw holes got drilled slightly oversize and filled with thickened West System 105/205, and 403 microfibers in order to strengthen the skin for removal. The mounting holes for the forward cleats were also drilled out and the coring removed and filled with the same mix.
It’s probably going to rain early next week, so were going to hold off on any further “destruction” until we get another spell of predictable weather. Here’s a couple more videos of the process. Note: Production quality may vary from time to time depending on how busy I am to edit down Gigs worth of footage.
Rich, just went through the entire web site. It’s great. I have a 1977 CT-37 hull 63 and have been doing much of the same work as you. My teak decks were in pretty good shape. However, I still removed every single teak plug, removed the screw, shot CPES into every hole and replaced the screw and epoxied in a new teak plug. Before that I re-caulked all the seams. What a job! My knees are shot! I have been working on my boat for many years. Lots more to do. Your web site is so well done and I enjoy watching and reading about each of your projects. Looking forward for more!
Thanks a bunch John. We really appreciate the feedback and enjoy documenting our (mis)adventures in boat projects. It’s tough work, but these boats are well worth the effort.