Fiberglassing the hull deck joint

[sangalanga]

glassing the hull to deck joint

Hey guys,

We are in the process of restoring a 1983 Wellcraft Windstar 19' Sailboat. We found the hull to deck joint in ok condition however there are some spots that will not keep the water out. As you can see from the picture the joint is a flange type. Took an agle grinder and got all of the gelcoat off down to the fiberglass, caulked the bad spots and put in stainless steel screws every six inches. My question is will the fiberglass be able to bend around the flange's sharp 90 degree corners and still maintain a smooth surface? Would like to fit a simple wooden toe rail over the flange after the glassing is completed. Thanks,

First picture is the
hull and deck joint flange before taking off gel coat

Second picture is the
flange after taking off the gel coat.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Fiberglassing the hull deck joint

Hello sangalanga and welcome to iboats..

If Im seeing this right .. you want to wrap some mat around your ground out flange..

You might be able to do a wrap some 3/4 oz mat in layers after you round your edge and tack with resin b4 your layup..

IF im gettin this right..without pics..the best thing to do on your hull deck flange is get a cut-off wheel and grind into the seam about 3/4". Acetone it and pack with West System putty ( cabosil ). Prep and wrap with 3/4 oz mat. Your gonna have to baby the mat to get rid of air bubbles..

You can secure your wooden rub rail with some "bedding" compound after that..

Of course more info would be helpful..

YD.

 

[sangalanga]

Re: Fiberglassing the hull deck joint

Thanks Yacht Dr.! Glad I found this site!

Here are some additional pictures:


First is a side view of the flange with the deck "lip" first, then the "lifeboat caulk" then the
hull "lip" on the bottom.

Second is a top down view of the flange showing the exposed fiberglass resin that was under the gel
coat.

<If Im seeing this right .. you want to wrap some mat around your ground out flange..>

Yes, that is correct. You did not mention cloth or roving. Do we just exclusively use mat in this case?

When you say "round your edge" do you mean with a sander? What does "tack" and "layup" mean?

We thought about removing all the caulk but the fellas at West Marine said if we are sealing it up
with fiberglass why bother. Also most of the caulk though old is still in ok shape plus we want to
get in the water before the end of summer.

The rubrail will consist of simply some marine quality wood trim with a channel routed out to accommodate
the fiberglassed flange. We are hoping that no additional fasteners would be nessesary to hold the toe rail
on but that is another topic.

 

[jonesg]

Re: Fiberglassing the hull deck joint

http://www.yachtsurvey.com/leaky_boats.htm

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Fiberglassing the hull deck joint

Hello again..

yup..round the flange out with a sander/grinder ( fiberglass does not like sharp corners ).

What I mean by "tack" is some resin that is beginning to gel up.

Roving will have a hard time going around that lip from what I can tell..and finish cloth wont do any good.

I personally would die grind into your flange seam about 1/2" and pack with thickened epoxy/cabosil mix. Reprep/round out flange and glass over it with mat. You would have have to use poly resin with the mat.

I had a 30' Catalina in the Caribean .. and one time offshore I was in some bad chop..I saw about 3 gallons of water each time I hit a swell wrong coming through my hull deck . When I got to St. Thomas I Die ground out my joint and packed with Epoxy/cabosil.. Never had a problem after that..

YD.

 

[sangalanga]

Re: Fiberglassing the hull deck joint

Yacht. Dr,

Followed your advice and so I just wanted to post some pics of the fiber glassing we did over the weekend. The first picture clearly shows where my learning curve started, and that was after melting two plastic bowls of resin. I cut two pieces of mat 2 1/2 inches. As you can see this is a little over kill. The second picture shows what I think looks a little better. Only one piece of mat cut to 2 inches.

This is slow going however. I found that I can only do one piece at a time, one batch at a time. You were right. The mat needs constant attention while it solidifies. Even then I was not successful in getting all the bubbles out but I think it will keep all the water out which is much more important.

Thanks again.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Fiberglassing the hull deck joint

sangalanga..

You did fine m8..

Glad we could help.

YD.

PS. IF you need to put some fasteners on your rub rail..be sure to pilot "through" the Fiberglass first.. dont let your screws touch the fiberglass ( IE dont just ram some screws through that glass..).