505 foredeck in need of advice!

Originally posted by riding shotgun

Originally posted by riding shotgun

which glue, 

SP Systems SP106 plus fillers. Any sailboat shop. I'd have microfibres, olloidal silica and microballons (the red ones).

Put a coat of SP106 on what will be the underside ply before cutting it down (do it the night before when you get the wood home). Some kind of roller is really good for spreading it thinly and evenly. This will be your antirot on the underside. 

Take off the old decks, use a sharp chisel to get every trace of the old ply and glus off but as little as possible of the beams. Don't panic too much though if you do, fillers are your friend here. If you can take the gunwhales back all well and good, in my experience you aren't often that lucky. Otherwise plane to flus with the beams. Thinning them down as described is really cool, but very easy to trash tools on screws and things.

Now the bit that will need thinking about is the centre join. Different boats do things differently here. If the beam is better than about an inmch and a half wide you have no problems, just butt the two pieces. Similarly if there's a central strip of wood just but them up to that. If you finmd there's only a very narrow beam and the ply wasnot butted but somehow joined at the centre, or else a single vary wide sheet (there used to be such stuff available) then report back and we'll tell you the workarounds. 

Anyway, lets assume its a butt join. Cut your ply so its roughly the right shape but two or three inches too big all the way round. Make up some SP106 with filler. You'll need about 30cc per side. The little measuring cups for cough syrup are cool for measuring, your chemist will sell you some. While you're down there get a box of disposable gloves, you'll use lots while doing this because you don't want to get epoxy on your hands and its fgar cheaper getting them there than sailboat shops. Mix up the glue then add fillers. I use about 1/3 each silica, microfibres and microballons. aim for kinda whipped double cream  consistency. The silica makes it thick, the mircodibres make it flexible and the microballoons eke out the expensive glue, make it lighter and vaguely wood coloured. Spread the mix on the surfaces, you want a reasonable thickness but don't go mad, maybe jam on bread thickness. Do one side at a time. Put your ply in place and staple along the centreline. Make d**n sure its exactly straight. Now yo u have to get the rest down. Its probably a bit three dimensional so will be a bit tricky. I normally start by going down the front bulkhead, then work from bow mac towards missle and bulkhead forward. When the glue has gone off tidy up the centre line where glue has squeezed out so you can butt up the next piece precisely. Repeat with other side. Should now look something like this. Try for a tidier workshop though!

In this case the join isn't down the centreline, but don't worry about that: its a special case. 

Now plane the excess ply down flush with gunwhales or whatvver is there, and replace gunwhales/add extra capoping if you are doing that. After adding the gunwhale capping its will then need taking down flush with the deck. Be *very* carful about using a plane for that, very easy to skim the ply which looks like hell. A power sander is safer.

If you've put a beautiful new foredeck on you for sure wnat to varnish it. Two pot lasts best.