Wet cockpit deck

[Bolo]

Hello all! I am a soon to be owner of an Ericson 32 MKIII and just last Monday had the survey and sea trial. All I have to say is wow! I now own a Hunter 285, which is up for sale, but needless to say here I'm sure there is a world of difference between the two boats.

During the survey one of the items that came up was a high moisture level below the cockpit sole. The surveyor sounded the deck with his rubber hammer and it actually did well but the moisture meter pinned in the same area. No other problems any place else. He suggested that the best fix would be to drill holes up through the bottom of the deck (below the cockpit) every 6" but not through the top (of course) to dry out the core. Heat lamps would also help the process. After the core dried out then inject epoxy, again from the bottom.

I've never had this sort of problem before on my other boat and I'm sure there are other ways of taking care of this problem. The surveyor said that this was not a reason to walk away from the sale but that it needed to be taken care of within a reasonable amount of time. He also preferred drilling holes from the bottom to rertain the non-skid top surface which is very expensive to replace.

Being a new member of this site, which I found while looking for info on the 32, I'm sure I'll be coming back and asking more questions. Thanks!

 

[NateHanson]

You'll also want to find out how the water is getting into the cockpit sole. Do the scuppers need rebedded, and the core sealed where those holes are drilled? Is the sole underbuilt, and flexing/cracking from heavy crew jumping around? Thus allowing water to get through the top laminate? This is important to know, because if it's the latter, you'll have more repairs to do, glassing in ribs under the sole to stiffen it up, and possibly repairs to the top laminate.

Not to sound alarmist, because it's probably a minor source, but as important as drying out the hull and injecting epoxy, is first fixing the source of the leak!

 

[rwthomas1]

Once you find the source of the leak and have dried out the sole by drilling the holes from the bottom as instructed just fix the leak. Remove whatever hardware may be allowing water in, dig out the core material, fill with epoxy paste, allow to cure and then rebed and reassemble. The core need not be totally dry to do this. In fact, once the water leak has been sealed it would be beneficial to leave the drilled holes open for as long as possible, like a season or two. This obviously assumes the holes drilled from the bottom do not and will not allow moisture in. The longer you let it dry out the better. Then inject a product like CPES epoxy sealer. I am currently waiting for a section of my deck around the dorade box to dry a bit by keeping the area tarped and dry all the time. I wouldn't let it stop you from buying the boat. RT

 

[Bolo]

Find the leak first.

Thank you all for your input! Yes, I knew I have to find the leak first but I guess I failed to mention it. It was the sort of thing I took for granted but should have listed it as #1 to do in the fix. So, it sounds like you all don't think it's such a big deal. The deck didn't feel spungy at all. In fact the surveyor got good "noise" from his soundings but a wet reading from his meter. He said that it is probably because the Ericsons are built so well.

Bolo