Hull/deck joint construction/repair

Hull/deck joint construction/repair

andrey28 20 Oct 2011 22:45

Hello,

I'm not the owner of the GD28 yet, but may become soon :)

On the boat I'm looking at I can see a crack which goes along the edge of the deck (at the gunwale), right under the wooden bulwark (I can see crack in the bulwark scuppers). In one place fiberglass was removed and I can see some (rotted?) wood inside.

- Could please someone describe construction of the hull/deck joint on Great Danes?
- What do you think this will take to repair?

I can see myself removing bulwark (is it attached with screws?), removing some material with a router and then filling it with something. But I'd like to know what to expect before ripping the boat apart.

Hope to join your club soon.

Best regards,
Andrey

Re: Hull/deck joint construction/repair

red dane 24 Oct 2011 23:33

Hello Andrey,

Its difficult to give you an accurate answer without actually seeing the damage, if you could post a pic we could understand more easily.

The GD28 was built by more than one yard, so I can only give my opinion in relation to Red Dane, built by Sanderson in 1968, Sanderson did build most of the hulls but not all (not the first and last ones).

The hull/deck joint would appear to be an 'inboard flange' shown here Deck-Hull jointing examples.

Any rotten wood is always best cut out and replaced but not always necessary. The GD28 deck-hull joint is a strong one and you are probably looking at some localised damage, I had a shipwright replace the bow roller pad and part of the toerail (bulwark) and he passed comment on how strong the deck-hull joint was. You do not say what size the crack is, length/width. If this crack is only of a few inches, then simply cut back into sound glass, dry out and effect a repair using epoxy or polyester resin and matting, you can repair polyester with polyester or epoxy, but you can only repair epoxy with epoxy. Have a careful check of the deck in that area, if it is of a sandwich construction (like mine) and if water has been getting in there for any length of time it may be delaminated/soft, this can be repaired but becomes slightly more involved. The toerail is indeed attached by bedding compound and screwed into position.

Cheers,

Callum

Last edited on 24 Oct 2011 23:37 by red dane Show more