I thought I would share my recent cockpit support repair experience. When I purchased Second Chance (a 1980 CD 27) last year my surveyor noticed that the plywood structure supporting the cockpit had some delamination along the bottom and should be repaired. Now that I have finally completed the repair, here's what I found:
The bottom of the support on the starboard side along the hull was softer and mushier than I thought it would be, and the plywood just came apart. Rather than mess around trying to reglue the piece, I completely cut it out, back to good wood. I then cut a new piece of 1/2 in plywood, coated it with West System epoxy, and spliced it into place. I used backing blocks to strenghten the joints, and epoxied them into place as well. Interestingly, when I took out the old wood, I found that the old wood had been tabbed to the hull on the inside. That was helpful, because the tabbing was in good shape and I just glued right back to it.
I'm still not exactly sure how it got wet to begin with. The bilge stays very dry, even after a heavy rain (we just had record rain in Westchester, NY, with Tropical Storm "Flood" on 9/16), so I do not think there's a leak. Also, nowhere else on the entire cockpit support structure was compromised. The prior owner used to keep a bucket and a mop in the starboard locker, and I think that wetness caused it.
Along with a planned painting of the lockers during the off season, I plan to coat the whole structure with West bofore painting. It's probably most important to get any gap between the end grain plywood and the hull sealed well to prevent any such delamination in the future.
Something else to watch out for!
Bill Goldsmith
s/v Second Chance
CD27 #172
goldy@bestweb.net
Cockpit Support Repair
Moderator: Jim Walsh