CD 25 coaming board repair?

[Moby Dink]

Hey all, I bought a CD25 a couple weeks ago, and I'd like to repair/replace the stbd side coaming board. Not exactly sure what happened, maybe winch cleat pulled free? Anyway, sorry for bad pic, didn't think to take a better one when I washed the boat, if you zoom in you'll see what I've got. I picked up some 1/2" thick coaming boards off a salvaged power boat, but they are less than 8" wide and only about 3' long before they get to damaged areas themselves. Anyone ever scarf joint a "piece" in and have it look right? Or does anyone know of one for sale, or where to find a 1/2"x12'"x8'+ teak board to make new in the Potomac/Chesapeake area? Thanks for reading!

[bgephart]

My 1979 CD-25 suffered similar damage when a “friend” towed my boat pulling it by the port side winch cleat - I was out of town at the time. I did have the advantage of recovering the broken piece. We did epoxy it back in place and it looks fine and just as strong as ever four laters later.

[Moby Dink]

Thanks, that's good to hear. I obviously don't have the missing piece, but I was able to get my hands on come scrap. The are has been sanded down to remove and sharp edges. I'm guessing it can hurt to cut out what's there and add a new piece, I've tried googling and you-tubing, but can't find an exact scenario. Not sure if best to cut a curve, simple rectangle, or some fancy scarf joint? I'd really prefer to do it in place if possible. Not a huge fan of taking things apart needlessly. With my luck things don't always go back as easy as they come out... Thanks for the info

[mgphl52]

You may want to consider making a longish trapezoid insert with shorter section at the top. Straight edges should be a bit easier to match.
And, Yes!, I suspect someone tied a dock to that cleat...

[Keith]

I had the same problem. It started because the cleat was attached to high on the coaming board which meant that the two top screws were very close to the top of edge of the coaming board. The screws are countersunk and when they tightened them it caused a crack and the coaming board started to split. I caused the final failure when I attached the spinnaker sheet to the cleat directly from the turning block without going around the winch. I still had the yankee sheet on the winch and was just cleating the spinnaker off until I cleared the yankee sheet from the winch. Well you guessed it the wind puffed up a bit and away went the cleat and a piece of the coaming board that is the exact same shape as yours. If I had just cleared the winch prior to setting the spinnaker it would not have happened. Oh well should of, could of, would of.

For the repair I did exactly what you are planning. I painstakingly fit a scrap teak piece into the void. This was not difficult but very time consuming to get a perfect fit. Lots of sanding of both the new piece and the existing coaming board.after I had the basic shape. I then counterbored three screw through the new fitted piece and into the existing coaming board. When I was satisfied with the fit I epoxied the new piece to the existing coaming board and put the three screws in and let the epoxy cure. I then bunged the three screw holes and drilled new holes to mount the cleat making sure that it was not to high on the new coaming board piece.

This fix actually looks pretty good and has held up for 4 or 5 years. My original plan was for this to be a temporary fix and to make a new coaming board at some point. I may still do that some day but maybe not. I'll try to get over to the boat today and take a pic. It's sunny and a balmy 24 deg right now!

Keith

[Bill Goldsmith]

I had to repair/replace a damaged section of taffrail and made an exact fitting replacement piece that fit beautifully, using a router patterning bit. It takes some planning and some skills with a router. It can be done by hand, but the router technique works very well.

The basic process is this: Make a router patterning template out of 1/8" hardboard that follows the radius of the missing wood. What you want is a pattern that will guide the router bit to cut a smooth radius in the old teak, while removing as little wood as possible. Find a repair piece a little thicker than the coaming board, and using a patterning bit, use the same hardboard pattern to cut the same radius in the repair piece. Now you have repair piece cut that will exactly fit the existing coaming. Once the glue is dry, sand the insert to be flush with the existing coaming on all sides, and you have a completed repair. If you want, you can try to match the grain direction and appearance so the repair piece will be less obvious, but if it were my boat, I would not obsess over that too much. It's wood.

Good luck with the repair.

[tjr818]

I wouldn't try to match the grain, unless it was for a very well paying customer. Wabi Sabi.

[Bill Goldsmith]

I wouldn't try to match the grain, unless it was for a very well paying customer. Wabi Sabi.

[Keith]

I guess my memory isn't what it used to be. The cleat actually broke out a smaller section (see pics) and I cut out that present shape to cover all of the damaged areas and to give more surface area for the epoxy bond and to get the length for the three screws that go down into the coaming. You can also see in the pics where the original crack was and how the bottom screw pulled right through the teak.

outside of break.jpg

inside of break.jpg

[tartansailor]

I have a pair that you can have for the price of a cup of coffee.
19968 zip code.
Dick

[mgphl52]

In my humble opinion, I'd still recommend doing a trapezoid insert for better strength. Yes, it'll be a bit more difficult to cut & fit but should last much longer than simply matching the broken curve. It would also have "lifting" strength for a bimini or boom tent.

[Moby Dink]

PXL_20210123_004602948.NIGHT.jpg

Wow, thanks all, you guys are great! I appreciate the feedback. Thanks for fighting the blustery cold for the follow up pics too.

I do have a carpentry background, I framed houses back in the day, decks, interior trim, cabinet install, etc.. I have a couple routers, but I've never actually used a template. I had thought about it, but in my mind the width of the router bit was going to make my piece too small, but after you mentioned it, I you-tubed it and now I think I have a pretty good grip on it. I'll need to cut some more of my existing coaming board out in order to square up the edges that have been sanded round, but now I understand how to make that template and get a nice fitting piece.

I will attempt to match the grain best I can with what I have, and that's just because I try to do everything I do like I did it on purpose, but the reality is my carpentry skills are far from furniture grade at this point. I'll post pics of what I end up with after I finish so if nothing else, y'all can get a good laugh!

I need to replace sections of rub rail on both sides as well, but I believe that should be pretty straight forward, (famous last words). If anyone has any 3/4"x3/4" sticks of teak or larger for sale, I'd definitely be interested. As I stated earlier, I did find a couple salvaged 1/2" coaming boards, and a really nice 8'+ wide x 2'+ deep swim platform on Craigslist I picked up for $100. I was going to cut up the platform to use the strips for my rub rails, framing my cockpit grate, and I need to cut my hatch doors in order to widen them and add to the top as I saw someone on here had suggested in a previous thread. It does seem a shame to cut up the nice swim platform, but teak doesn't seem to be the easiest to find these days. Any suggestions on resourcing some would be greatly appreciated.

You guys have proven to be a plethora of knowledge, and I hope I can in turn be able to help someone in the future. And I like the trapezoid idea, it's sort of along the scarf joint I was thinking, but the trapezoid would certainly be an easier cut, and I don't see why I couldn't do that with a router and template? Short end at the top so the piece can't be lifted up, I like it, I just didn't consider it, thanks again!

And Dick, you mentioned a pair for a cup of coffee, is that a pair of coaming boards?? It looks like it's a 4 hour drive each way, but if you have them for sale, I'll certainly do better than a cup of coffee!

I've got other unrelated questions, but I guess I'll open another post since it's a different topic. It's been a great help to me to find these threads. Thanks again, waiting for it to warm up so I can launch her and bring her home!

Travis Wilson
CD25 Slainte

[Bill Goldsmith]

Wow, thanks all, you guys are great! I appreciate the feedback. Thanks for fighting the blustery cold for the follow up pics too ... You guys have proven to be a plethora of knowledge, and I hope I can in turn be able to help someone in the future.

I've been following this board since 1998 and it's hands down the best group of people on the internet.

[Moby Dink]

I have to agree. Posted my question just 2 days ago, and I just noticed it's been read 119 times already. Pretty amazing stuff!

[Moby Dink]

I have to agree. Posted my question just 2 days ago, and I just noticed it's been read 119 times already. Pretty amazing stuff!