Re: Structural question regarding the hull in Bayliner Capri's
I also have an '88 Bayliner Capri and found the same problem with the deck. The boat sat for two years and the moisture trapped under the carpeting over the years simply rotted the decking. I'm also a carpenter by trade and figured it was a good job to tackle myself. Boy did I get myself in deep when I took this project on!
The structural support for this boat are plywood stringers from bow to stern encased in fiberglass. There were several 1x2 firring strips (on flat) that were used as cross supports. Not much support if you ask me! The decking itself was ?" plywood and the deck had a lot of "give" to it even before it started to rot away.
This is what the deck looked like once I removed the carpet...
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This is what I cut out of the deck...
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When I started to rebuild the supports I decided to use ?" pressure treated plywood and make my own I-beams using a dadoed top and bottom plate and a piece of ?" ply as the rib. I also reinforced the existing fiber glassed ribs with another piece of ?" ply. The most difficult part of this are the angles, but after using a cardboard template for each I-beam/support, it went relatively smoothly.
This is what the supports looked like...
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The supports were screwed into the reinforced ribs leaving a small gap between the hull and the underside of the bottom plate. To fill the void I used the fast setting West System epoxy to ensure there was a "flat" and solid connection between the two. This was a challenge to mix and apply the epoxy, set it in place, and finally screw it in place before the epoxy set.
The rear solid panel that encases the fuel tank was fiber glassed and the new plywood was coated with fiberglass and/or epoxy then painted with epoxy paint. I didn't get any pictures of the decking but I used ?" pressure treated plywood. I made a plywood "tongue" on a piece of the new decking to slip under the existing decking that covered the majority of the fuel tank since I couldn't screw this portion. When this new piece of decking went down I used some glue on the tongue to secure the two pieces.
After all the new plywood decking was installed I used the West System epoxy on all the seams with the fiberglass cloth. Then I put several coats of epoxy on the entire deck, sanded (relatively) smooth, and painted with epoxy paint.
I doubt that I'll install carpeting as it is used for fishing too and I think we all know how much fun it is to clean the carpet after a busy day of fishing! So instead I might just use the non-skid tape. Right now it seems pretty good without anything on the deck. I'll have to see how it works out this season.
In the end it was well worth all the work, but it was not a small repair by any means.
