soft spots in fiberglass floor

[LEASEGUY]

Hey guys, need some advice

I'm working on a 1988 aquasport, full glass in & out. Its in excellent condition but it has a couple of soft spots in the floor. I was installing a hatch to relocate a battery and the section I cut out is a sandwich of glass with a very soggy cork or balsa core. Looking for a method to inject some type of resin back in but Im concerned about the water and the lack of adhesion ?

[lazeyjack]

do you mean the sole, or a floor? where you stand in a boat is called the sole, floors are awthartships structures?

[lazeyjack]

God I must be bored today,

[Frosty]

Lazeyjack, For the benefit of other forum participants could your explain what awthwartships structures are?

[LEASEGUY]

oh sorry.i have soft spots on my sole

[lazeyjack]

Oh well the boats frame is called the structure, whether timber, that sticky crap, steel alloy or whatever
the frames which go across the boat, are joined at the bottom, across the keel by the floor, the floor is a heavy section of , in timber boats, layers of wood, or one big grown slab,built to a height and following the deadrise of the hull(shape of bottom) rise, the depth of these floors determines the strength of the bottom structure, they may be bronze as they were on mr Herroshoffs fine designs, or galv steel, in metal boast they are the same as the plating of course Glass boats have similar in many cases UM, athwarthships means anything that runs across the boat, like a galley is said to be such as against fore and aft, so fore and aft or athwartships, Are you pulling my leg?

[jimslade]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Your floor (sole) needs replacing, you can try to dry it out and coat it but it will need replacing shortly thereafter. In my books a sole is best with chips (lots of salt and vineger)

[lazeyjack]

yum you in the north are lucky with your fish,

[SamSam]

Originally Posted by LEASEGUY

oh sorry.i have soft spots on my sole

It sounds as if you have a theological problem. Repent, before it's too late!
Actually, I've never heard of injecting resin into a rotten deck to fix it. The usual solution to fix it, is to tear it out and replace it, which is interesting. Once the deck is out, it's sort of common to find out the stringers are rotten also. To top it off, if the deck and stringers are bad, the transom is suspect. But, you might be lucky and your sole is only rotten in spots and that's it. Can you somehow find out if the deck is actually balsa, and not just rotten plywood? Maybe remove some other hatch that's set in a solid part of the deck or drill a small hole or cut back the rotten stuff until solid material is found? Is there glass on both sides of the 'sandwich'? Maybe post some pictures? Sam

[LEASEGUY]

yes sam both sides are glass with cork inbetween, i believe its soft because the core has colapsed or disintergrated, so I thought drilling a hole in the middle mixing up some resin and forcing it in with a large saringe would firm it up. Its a 28 ft center console 10ft beam so ill deal with the spots instead of replacing all of it. but thanks

[LEASEGUY]

hey jack your right about the fish but with fuel prices flukes like $20. a pound

[bilgeboy]

I have a soft spot for sole, too.

Great summer for fluke, have been catching them like crazy. A few true doormats to boot. Get that floor fixed and get back out there, they won't be around too much longer. Hell, the floor can wait till you're on the hard, anyway. Dry it out before freezing weather, and fix in the spring.

Mike

[LEASEGUY]

Hey bilgeboy,

I hear ya , not even thinking about fixing it while Im in. Where are you fishing ? Im on Long Island out of Copaiuge.

[bilgeboy]

That sounds real nice. I've got to take the boat down that way one summer.

I'm out of Point Judith / Gallilee in Rhode Island. We fish the Nebraska Shoal ( off RI beaches ) and various points off Block Island (North Rip and Southwest Ledge). When the weather is good, we venture a bit further off shore for bigger game, but I don't know what the hell I'm doing and often come home with nothing on those trips.

We sure did get off topic on this one, but it is August, and glass repairs are best left for May. The 8' carbon/epoxy with a Penn 550 is more timely.

You do have a heck of a job for next Spring! Hang out for the Winter, and you will learn so much about boat building it will be a snap. I really learned alot about composites at this site, and had a great time doing it.

Mike