[Public-List] Re-Sealing the Deck to Hull Joint

[Glenn]

Greg,

I might be able to find some photos of my install and send them along to you and George to post.  Basically i started out with 16' x 10" x1 1/2" sapelle and laid out the bulwarks end for end on the boards, i think 41/4"at the bow, 3 3/4" at the stern, final measure. so they are tappered slightly as they run aft.  Then cut oversized and planned down to size.  The biggest issue was figuring out the camber of the deck hull angle.  I set up stations every 6" and measured the deck angle at each station with a cheapo carpenters protractor - the kind that allows the arm to swing around a pivot and tighten down with a knurled fingernut. You want rhe bulwarks to be parallel with the sides of the hull, and the ever changing deck angle requires something like a 1/2 or 5/8" camber on the bottom of the bulwark at the bow. Otherwise the bulwark sticks outboard at a crazy looking angle.    This is much more important to get right than height regarding overall lines of the boat.  

Then transferred all the stations and dimensions onto plywood template and whacked away at the bulwark stock with a power hand planer until the deck angle was right and the tapper was close to smooth.  Drill, bed and bolt and its done.  Actually took about 6 weeks to finish up, including glueing the two 16' pieces together and steaming and installing the teak cap rails.  I spent a lot of time figuring out the measurements and the layout maybe 2 weeks on and off, but the proportions worked out pretty well i think.  

BTW, now that I think about it, Whitby caulked the hull deck joint on Dolce 318 with the same gray putty they used around the stuffing box.  Scarry, but it lasted 45 years.  On Dolce, the putty was mostly dried out and cracked throughout, but still somewhat serviceable underneath when I stripped  it out.  I have had very poor success with boatlife caulk so decided to use 5200 to seal the seam.  Something i  hardly ever use on a boat...  But i couldnt really think of anything else.  

Since then I have heard of people grinding down the hull deck joint 2 or so inches each side of the joint and laying several layers of fiberglass resin tape and matt, with FG putty filler to seal it up and bond the deck.   Seems like the best way to go in retrospect, although a real time sink to grind down the hull and deck joint then smooth out and refinish the final joint when done. 

Ill send pictures if I can find them

Glenn
dolce 318

Sent from my iPad

On Dec 24, 2013, at 2:19 PM, gregr at nethere.com wrote:

> Hi Folks,
> 
> Jeff,
>   I agree that something like a polysulfide is the right stuff to bed the
> rails. It never occurred to me to use epoxy to bed the rails so I wasn't
> clear...
> 
> Michael,
>   I'm looking to make sure that my hull to deck seal is water tight. I'm
> going to guess that my rigger was talking about using epoxy between the
> hull and deck. He has also suggested going to an aluminum toe rail.
> 
> Glenn,
>   I would Really like to see some pictures of your setup. I've always liked
> the idea of the bulwarks but couldn't conceive of how to make it work on an
> Alberg and not screw up the lines.
> 
> Something I saw on a wooden boat last year that looked very functional was
> basically a series a boards that were about 4" high and raised off the deck
> enough to provide drainage. I had forgotten about that approach. It's
> another that might be hard to pull off aesthetically...
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Greg
> 
> 
> 
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