Recore or not?

[Jeff PT403]

To I was going to start recore the side decks on my Triton.
When tapping on the sides it sounded hollow and a little bounce to the hammer.
Was so I made a cut through the top laminate from the cockpit up to the front
bulkhead. When I started to remove top layer I can't get it off with out breaking
it all to pieces it's coming up so hard. I only have about a 3" x 12" piece up.
Should I stop and just patch the hole, then bevel the cut I did? Then go with
the hole drilling method to make it more solid? The balsa was not too bad maybe
just a litttle crumble but I still had to use a wood chisel to get it out.

Thanks for your help.
Jeff

[Rachel]

I would either re-core it right, or not do it at all, myself. I'm not a fan of the swiss-cheese holes/fill method. If it really needs it then you will probably end up having to do it again later (at which time the epoxy columns will make it all harder); if it doesn't need it, then no need to do anything.

I'm not really proficient at sounding, so what I have done is use a moisture meter to get some idea, and then drill "core samples" from below with a hole saw in suspect areas to see if the core was dry/damp/wet/debonded/mush. When I have not had access to a moisture meter I just used the core sample method (from below, because it has always been in boats with no liner).

I would say that damp and not debonded would be a judgment call; wet, de-bonded, or mush.... re-core.

In my experience it's typical that although the core is wet it is not completely easy to separate it from the top skin everywhere. Sometimes it is a bit of a fight, you have to cut the skin and core into cubes and chisel them out, etc. Only if it is total black soupy mush is it truly easy to get the old core out. But even then there will usually be an area where you have to work at it, because it doesn't go from black/mush in one area to perfect/dry core in another, without a damp/wet/maybe-debonded transition area, that I would want to re-core.

What made you decide to start with the re-core? Soft decks? Obvious moisture? Or...?

Rachel

[Jeff PT403]

Just that it seemed soft or mushy when walking across it.
The core is not wet but it's been inside for the last 15 years I was told.

So just cut the fiberglass up into small squares to make it easyer to get out?


Jeff

[bcooke]

Determining the condition of the decks by sounding them is not a skill you pick up from a book in the library. For a couple hundred bucks you could have a professional boat surveyor use his/her lifetime of experience to give you a really good understanding of the condition of the decks. Considering the overall costs of a recore, the cost of a survey wouldn't even be a blip on the balance sheet.

If you don't have to recore you really don't want to go that route.

[galleywench]

I'd agree with Britton whole heartedly. Deck sounding is not something that can be read in a book. There are a bunch of factors that change the tone of the sound that have nothing to do with whether the core is in good shape or not. Bulkheads, adjacent hardware, changes in skin thickness all play into it. Getting a competent surveyor is money well spent. With any luck your decks are not a total loss like mine were and if a surveyor maps out the areas that failed you can strategically attack them and save a ton of time and additional money. Once you get in there and find the extent of the water intrusion you can hopefully limit the amount that you recore.