Deck coverings (again, sorry)

[ianc1200]

I'm hopefully bringing my boat back from the Blackwater to the Thames at Hurley next week (I keep her at Freebody's). Over the years I've removed the teak veneer to the foredeck, the Trackmark to the saloon roof, and whatever the old covering was to the wheelhouse roof, and replaced all with painted canvas. I've probally done all three three times each in the last 15 years or so. Again I've got various splits in the painted canvas and am considering another solution.

Has anybody got any experience of epoxing a thin layer of ply down onto (BC) pine t & g boarding, then woven rovings and self coloured (ie avoid painting again) epoxy finish. I've seen one boat that Freebody's did, and a Richmond Slipways cruiser Colin Henwood did, and am impressed with the results now many years on.

My probem is that I'm going to try and do it essentially outdoors under the winter cover, with problems of moisture and temperature, and also the tightly rounded edge details.

Are their any articles written on this given a practical view on these sort of issues, or a good book on the subject. Or has anybody done this themselves?

regards

IanC

MY "Straight Across"

 

[alb40]

My old boat had a thin T&G, covered in ply roof, and it seemed fine, and was quite strong too. This was done by its last owner, and wasnt sealed very well (they used polyester resin) which quickly destroyed the T&G.

If you go down that road, I would recommend epoxy with a minimum of 2 layers of woven fabric as the sheating. Ive just sheathed my current boat's new ply roof in epoxy, albeit with a single layer of heavy weight cloth, but it wasnt as easy to go round bends as easy as with two thinner layers. I then rolled on a couple more layers of just the epoxy resin to hide the weave in the fabric, followed by standard blakes white paint.

Hopefully it will last well. I would use paint though rather than an epoxy finish, as it will be easier to maintain in the future.

Over the coming months, I will continue using the epoxy in times of dry weather to finish sheathing my decks. Any weather warm enough for short sleave t shirts is warm enough. Just dont do it on anything thay isnt nice and dry, as it will affect the epoxy.

Hope this helps. Alex

 

[Mirelle]

In a word, yes.

My boat, when I bought her 22 years ago, had bare teak decks and a canvassed T&G pine coachroof. Being young and keen I took the purist's approach and re-canvassed the coach roof; this lasted 15 years. I then did the sensible thing and went for thin ply, epoxy and woven rovings; this has done six years and is absolutely fine. I paint it every couple of years as the boat leads a fairly hard life as a family cruiser and I need something to get rid of the stains left by mud, fish guts, rusty fishhooks, Ribena, etc on the white paint!

One other point - the addition of the plywood stiffened the coachroof structure much more than I had expected - it used to "give" a little underfoot but it became much more rigid.

 

[Poignard]

I've partly re-coverd my ply coachroof using WEST epoxy and fabric. The UK agent is Wessex resins and they sent me a data sheet which was a great help.

I used their tapered edge fabric.The only difficulty I had was with cutting the fabric neatly. It's a quite a loose weave and easily pulls out of shape and comes apart. Also I did it on a windy day so that made it even more difficult to handle. Ieally choose a warm, windless day [not readily available during the winter lay-up period!] and have a good sized table to lay the fabric out on for cutting. The weather must be warm enough for the epoxy to work properly; an expert from Wessex Resins told me it has to be "t-shirt" weather.

 

[dur]

All as above and don't forget to seal all the edges (and any holes) of the ply with the epoxy. It's a pest to do just at the point when you are ready to get the new decks fitted but worth it in the end.

You can also use Peel Ply on the last coat of resin - it helps to give a decent even layer of epoxy with a slight stipple effect which is a good starting point for the deck paint.

 

[Blueboatman]

One suggestion re technique in cooler weather.
If you run an electric fan heater high up inside the boat under the area where you are epoxying,you will maintain a nice dry climate and consistent temperature whilst doing the work and allowing it to cure.You would want to cover externally with a plastic tent too to keep dew at bay(of course)