Bill Garden Force 50

The Force is a heavy boat with allot of room and can be bought for a fair price from $35.000 to $350.000 if the latter is a fair price. The boats had a problem with the balsa cored decks and allot of them rotted due to water getting in around the screws from the teak decks. I posted to another spot on this site about this but got no reply so here it goes. Marine plywood or end grain balsa glassed over, to teak again or not?. The deck balsa just seems so light for this heavy cruiser. I was thinking like 5/8" or even 3/4" 1088 ply wood and three layers of glass to make it a full one inch. The boat will have dive tanks the launch chickens and pigs on deck you get the picture.

 

Teak again,Devinasil core ,roven-woven,heavy cloth,chop mat,West sys. epoxy teak deck fasting technique

 

The easiest repair is to pull the teak and scrap it.

Grind the deck down to the glass , and use an epoxy trowled in with a knotched spreader and lay on Core Cell , or similar.

Vacume down , shop vac will do till cured.
Lay a top coat of glass ,Pollyester or Vynelester resin (3/4oz mat & 24oz roving ) about 3/8 thick . It will be lighter than the teak & easier to keep up.

Leave the rotten balsa or plywood in place , it will eventually dry out and stop stinking.

Rolled on no skid from the commercial side of Sherwin Williams (same as on carriers) is safest.

Not an Difficult or exppensive refit , but loads of grinding & layup.

But the deck comes out lighter , stronger and insulated if the better core materials are used.

FAST FRED

 

Is it realistic to expect any soaked large lump of mostly covered balsa to dry out in any water front area? I thought only true epoxy should be used in areas where water is a problem now and in the future. Screwing down any type of wood deck is restarting the same problems again. Droping dive tanks on a deck will probably dent and break the water tight seal you want to mantain. Closed cell and Epoxy only, are my choices and remove any water absorbent stuff while you are in there. Good Luck.