Bl**%y teak decks again

There is a good article in PBO May 2009 on repairing cored decks using ply as a replacement core. Might also be useeful for OPs problem of building up the recess if removing the teak.
 
There is a good article in PBO May 2009 on repairing cored decks using ply as a replacement core. Might also be useeful for OPs problem of building up the recess if removing the teak.

Using ply as a core does not exactly sound like a good idea to me. In fact, a bloody stupid idea.
Ply was the root cause of our problems; and it's too heavy to boot.
 
Using ply as a core does not exactly sound like a good idea to me. In fact, a bloody stupid idea.
Ply was the root cause of our problems; and it's too heavy to boot.

Suggest you read the article before dismissing it. Totally different set up from your failed deck! Would not have suggested it if it was like yours!
 
Easy tiger - instead of telling me to go & buy a magazine,why don't you just give me the jist of it?

When we found what we did find I talked to Fox's, Standfast and a retired naval architect: all dismissed ply as material for a core. It may have seemed like a food idea in the 80s, but these days there's better about. And most certainly lighter. Don't underestimate the weight of ply over a large surface.
 
The only time

when teak decks make sense, IMHO, is when the teak is fairly thick and the planks are screwed down directly on to deck beams, witht he screws counterbored and the holes plugged. In other words, in 'old-fashioned' construction. It is simple (but expensive). It becomes immediately apparent if there is a leak, and it is easy to see where it is. Then you rake out a bit of caulking and replace it. It is sustainable and simple.

A plywood substrate is often used on 'traditional' boats these days as it stiffens the structure and you can use thinner teak decking. It is just as bad as screwing down in to glass. Water WILL get through the fastening holes, and in to the ply, where it will creep about and do all sorts of bad things to coamings, deck edges, sheer planks.

Keep it simple

This method is good for other timbers as well - various softwoods are just as good, but not as 'posh' as teak.

I dont know how good sticking/bonding teak down is - it could work and at least there are no holes in the substrate. No experience though.

For the OP I would strongly suggest something other than teak or ply. A layer of foam to fill the recess, skinned over with cloth and resin in the appropriate combination would be pretty light and probably not too expensive, and will avoid the problem coming back. But the real worry would be how good is the substrate? If it is solid glass it will probably be fine, if it was cored there could be problems.....

Ha, boats.
 
Easy tiger - instead of telling me to go & buy a magazine,why don't you just give me the jist of it?

OK, seeing as it is Saturday morning and just about to pee with rain! So here is the gist.

The job was an old Coronet with a spongy foredeck. Cut off the outer GRP skin, scrape out the remains of the balsa, clean and dry, coat inner skin with epoxy, cut 12mm ply panels to fill space, saw cuts 9mm deep so ply laid well to curves, bonded in with epoxy, filled saw cuts with epoxy and filler, faired up, rebonded outer skin and made good round edges. Intended to cover with Tek Teak but could just as easily been painted, or indeed had teak laid on it with Sika. Water could never get in because there were no mechanical fastenings and everything was epoxy saturated. Only drawback is slight increase in weight.

Looks like a good alternative to both OP (using glass cloth to finish) and particularly Ifraser.

Worth buying the article from back numbers if one needs to do this sort of job - very detailed with good piccys.
 
Thanks for that.

It's basically what we did - but we used balsa instead of ply.
Classed in completely, then the cork was glued on top.
To avoid moisture getting into the balsa core - whenever holes were made for the deckfittings (genoa track, toe rail, etc...) we removed the balsa, filled with GRP and then drilled a hole for the fitting into the GRP.
That way there's no seepage into the core.

Like I said earlier - for the surface we needed to cover (30 m/sq), ply was considered too heavy. Still got the calculations somewhere. IIRC ply would have added 700kg to our displacement.
Some kind of foam's the current favourite, but was (much) more expensive than the balsa.
 
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