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Some deck leaks had been apparent
when we bought Daydreamer in 1988, along with a few popped bungs and
some loose caulking. We tried a few fixes but nothing
really stopped the leaks. It became apparent by the early 1990's
that the core had deteriorated from water entry but labor rates were
high enough in US boatyards that a repair done there would strain any
wallet. We decided to wait until we got to Mexico.
It turned out to be a great
decision. We found "Reggie the Carpenter" in La Paz, who made a
career out of re-screwing, re-bunging, and re-caulking teak decks. The
quality of his work and reputation were such that he had a year and a
half waiting list when we signed up. Reggie and his helper, Ernesto, did a
great job, working long days mostly on their hands and knees for a
period of about three months.
We used only the best materials,
Brynzeel marine plywood, West epoxy (by the gallon!), and TDS (Teak
Decking System) caulk, a sandable moisture-cured rubber material manufactured
just for this task. Winter in La Paz is the dry season in an already
desert area, so the teak had shrunk to its minimum dimensions.
We reckoned that once
the caulking was in place, being in a more humid area would only see the wood
expand and squeeze the caulking even tighter. It must've worked
because, to this day, we have no
loose caulking and no popped bungs.
As best I can tell from our records,
the total cost for this job was $US 9150 in labor and $US
7350 in materials.
The photos
below show the various steps taken in the course of the deck rebuild.
They also show some detail of our forward and aft awnings, which we
kept up for shade during the work.
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The first step in this project is the removal of all the bungs and #8
stainless steel screws from the area of the deck that had deteriorated
core. The teak decking in this area was then removed, set aside, and
cleaned up offsite. The old caulking and bedding material on the
fiberglass deck was cleaned up using sandpaper discs on an angle
grinder. |
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The upper fiberglass layer over the area with the bad core was then
cut into rough squares, on the order of 4 feet by 4 feet, using a
circular saw. The cut sections were then removed to expose the old
core. Note the balsa blocks originally used as core and the plywood
"bridge" that ran from gunwale to gunwale and around the front of the
mast. |
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The old core material was then removed and the upper side of the
bottom
fiberglass layer was cleaned up using sandpaper and an angle grinder.
The single layer of glass remaining at this point would have been too
easily deformed when walked on so we had to build internal scaffolding
to retain the shape of the deck; a portion of this scaffolding can be
seen in the hatch opening in the middle foreground. |
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The gunwale-to gunwale plywood "bridge" by the mast was reconstructed
using layers of laminated-in-place 4mm Brynzeel marine plywood. Rather than route
the "bridge" around the mast as done originally, we made the plywood
to fit tightly to the deck fitting (spigot) that the mast goes through
using precisely-sized cutouts. All joints between plywood layers were
staggered to eliminate weak points. Each plywood layer was laminated
to the layer below using thickened West Epoxy and weighted in place
using cement blocks, as shown here, and sand bags. Some of the new balsa
core material is also visible, sitting atop the plywood. |
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New Baltek balsa core material was then glued into place using
thickened West epoxy and weighted in place during the glue set up. We were not able to
exactly match the thicknesses of the balsa core and laminated-in-place
plywood, which is the source of a slight unevenness in the deck,
visible even today. |
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Slightly-thickened epoxy was squeegeed into the open kerfs of the
balsa core material and the original pieces of the upper glass layer
were then relaminated to the new core using thickened epoxy, weighted
into place during the glue setup period. The joints were then tapered
back and re-glassed, as visible here. |
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The teak decking removed at the start of the job was then reinstalled
using TDS caulking as bedding and #10 stainless steel screws. All other original bungs and screws were removed from the remainder of
the deck. The original screw holes were countersunk and the screws
replaced with #10 s/s screws set in liquid caulking. |
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All
deck screws were then covered with teak bungs set in epoxy which were
then cut flush with the deck using block plane and chisel. All old
caulking material was removed using a small circular saw with blades
stacked to result in the correct kerf width to receive the new caulk. The
remaining grooves were then hand-reeved using a tool that would
remove any wood in the bottom of the groove and scrape the decking sides to
be sure clean, fresh wood was exposed. |
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The grooves were then wiped with acetone and new TDS caulk gunned in
and pressed into place using a putty knife. After setting up, the new
caulking was sanded back to fresh wood and the deck hardware replaced. |
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FINISHED! |
