Removal of deck from hull?

[Fishbone]

I have a 94 Hewes LT20 which I'm restoring due to hull damage.
The deck has to come off for stringer replacement.

After very carefully cutting the splashwell portion of the deck away from the transome, it won't budge.



Apparently the splashwell was glassed into the transome fusing the two together.

Not knowing how the deck was secured to the hull at MHP,
called them, they were of no help,
This is the only possible solution I can conceive to seperate the deck from the transome and hull.
Make cuts in the splashwell along these lines as indicated in the below illustrated photos to seperate the 2.
My question, is this the norm when coming across these type of situations?

Thanks for everybodies help and input in regards to this issue.

[iceboater]

I bond the deck to the hull by using total 2700 gr/m2 (metric, sorry) strand mat.
Then I fill the void (1-4mm) between the splash-well and transom with resin, to make it solid.
Underneath the splash-well you would need to cut where the transom meets the splash-well on the inside. The resin does not bond the splash-well to the transom. You might be able to pry the splash-well underneath from the transom if you use chisel.

[Fishbone]

Ice Boater,
I tried cutting that area will everything known to man.
Then tried prying loose with a steel flat bar.
Nothing has worked.

[PAR]

It's unlikely your deck cap is bonded to the transom. Typically it's bedded and mechanically fastened. Quite often thru hull fittings and ooze out goo bonds the two elements together during assembly. These areas can be identified and cut out or you could just use the bruit force method and lever it off.

The usual method I employ is to start at the bow and lift the deck cap from the hull shell. Sometimes buoyancy foam also helps bond the to pieces together, but it's no match for my 4 ton hoist. On small craft, you'll need to dog the hull shell down. Ratcheting straps to the trailer can work, though a trailer isn't very heavy and you can lift it with the hoist, so I stake the trailer and hull shell down as a unit with moble home anchoring screws, twisted into the ground under the trailer frames.

Once you get the bow portion of the deck cap up enough, place in 2x4's across the rails under the cap, to keep what you have, then start beating on the area around where you think it's glued. The leverage of the now lifted deck cap and the weight of the anchored boat will help tremendously in shearing off the likely crappy mechanical bonds created during assembly.

As a rule, the majority of times the glass shreds above or below the bond and it comes out in a rush of tearing 'glass. You'll have to repair the area if it's a real bad situation, but again most of the time I just jack up the bow end of the deck cap and it just surrenders after enough force is applied.

Cutting the splash well as you've shown is a good idea. It'll let you lift the deck cap easier (it'll still be stuck in other places). If you try to lift the cap straight up, you'll have to over come each and every bond all at once, but if you lift the bow first, you'll tear each one as they come to bear the shearing load, which is a lot easier. I use a dead blow mallet and beat the suspect areas, which often result in a loud pop and the deck cap jumps free (or more so).

Also check to see if the liner, bonded to your transom as an inner skin, also has some laminate or ooze out sticking it to the cap. This is a common thing as well. A sharp chisel will blast out these clumps of goo or mat (as Iceboater mentioned), but the working area is a wee bit tight.

[Fishbone]

PAR,
Thanks for your advise, deeply appreciated.
Yes there is a lower liner under the splashwell area as well.
I had a hard time looking upside down around the bottom side of the splashwell so I broke out the digital camera and shot some pics.
Downloaded them on the computer to get a better view.
From everything I have looked at, the splashwell is glassed to the transome in addition to a few other places I have found.
As soon as time permits I will employee the procedure you described and post the results.

Once again, Thanks.

Fishbone