[Public-List] Advice for A Newbie

[Glenn Brooks]

I choose a slightly different approach in that I replaced the entire cockpit floor.  Just way to difficult to scrape the old coring etc given the depth of the cockpit.  So cut everything out and prefabed the new deck in my garage (mostly the bottom part, longitudinal reinforcing ribs, access plate to the stuffing box, and reinforced raised lip for engine hatch forward ) then bedded and glassed where I could reach using foam and glass cleats around the edge of the cockpit at the same level as the old deck.  In fact the old deck formed part of the cleat.  Then finished the top with 5 layers mat roving on the top side to bond everything together. Finish coated the top layer with two coats superfine matting and several coats resin for smoothness. Masked and Painted overtop with two coats interlux polyurthane and nonskid.  Kiwi grip works great also, I didn't have any left at that point. 

This enabled me to solve the impossible task of glassing up the underside of the deck - basically it can't be done upside down as gravity will pull the mat and roving away from the foam core and you can't physically reach all the  under surfaces to work the mat and roving etc.  also you can add inspection plates and a hatch to access the rear of the engine if you wish.  

Lastly, unbeknownst when I started,  the core delamination extended up the sides of the cockpit side walls in several places both sides, so my recoring  job included maybe 1/3 of the side walls - which I blended into the sides and bottoms for a smooth and even finish all around bedding all the new core with structural fiberglass putty and finishing off with the mat and roving out to the thickness of the original layup.  Note, on Dolce, cockpit floor was 1/2" core, sidewalks 3/8". Cautionary tale: This will require grinding a beveled edge all around to fair the old glass and new into one smooth surface - a nasty job, so bring a good vacuum and hulking big belt sander and 40 gritt belts, to reduce the old glass surface layers.

Mostly my access hatch over the rear engine is the best upgrade I've put into the boat. Made my life infinitely easier AND opened up all kinds of storage - for example, I remounted my batteries  and new exhaust muffler and hose etc  under the cockpit sole.  life is good with a hatch! Just climb in with your coffee cup and  work on stuff.   sweeet.

Cheers,

Glenn B
Dolce 318

Sent from my iPad

> On Jun 1, 2014, at 5:40 PM, <bobbohmer at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
>     I recently joined the ranks of A30 owners. I am aware of what most would call a big issue with the boat. The majority of the  cockpit floor is “soft”, so it needs to be repaired. I have experience with the same sort of issue as I just finished replacing all of the core material in the bottom of a fiberglass Jeep body. I realize that to do this on a boat is going to be much more difficult, but I was hoping that someone had dealt with the same problem and could offer pointers that will make it easier. My biggest concern to this point is the tiller post area. As I said most of the floor is soft, so I envision removal of the whole “top” skin and removal and replacement of all of the core. This would be followed by “tabbing” the removed top skin back in place. Finally, gelcoat and some sort of all-grip. I welcome any comments / pointers from the group.
> 
>   On another note, I have been informed that the boat ( Hull # 76 ) was named “Kittiwake” up until at least 2002. I don’t have a problem with the name, but as it doesn’t have a visible name ( painted over at some point ), I would like some feedback on the subject of renaming a boat. Is it bad karma ( I’m not superstitious ), but I don’t want to anger the gods of the seas. 
> 
> 
> Thanks In Advance,
> 
> Bob Bohmer #76
> 
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> Sent from Windows Mail
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