I have a 1975 Ericson 32 and just had a survey for insurance. There is a soft spot under the deck around the rear port stay. I read on line about fixing it and decided to do the repair from inside to save the nonskid pattern on the deck. Well we cut a hole in the ceiling of the cabin under the area and I now have no idea what I am looking at. There is a thin layer of fiberglass about an inch above the ceiling. Cutting a hole through it I found the wet core material. The problem is there is what appears to be epoxy on the underside of the thin layer of fiberglass that fills the area between the ceiling and the fiberglass, but it is only in a couple of spots. I am wondering if someone tried to do a repair in the past by injecting epoxy from the under side not knowing there was another layer of fiberglass below the deck. I may be in over my head again on this repair, but that's not new and I usually find a way to get through it with some help from my friends. The easy way would have been to go through the deck but I wanted to keep the outside looking good. The marina here where I am at has not been able to get me an estimate for over two weeks and the insurance company has grounded me until I get this fixed. Do I just cut out everything below the deck and replace it with plywood and epoxy, then fix the hole in the cabin? There is about a 5/8" space between the thin layer of fiberglass and the deck and the filler in there is wet and rotted. Any help and guidance would be appreciated and I would like to sail again before the summer is over. Other things I had to fix replace valves with ball valves, GFI outlets, relocate AC shutoff/fuse box from under the sink, etc. Thanks for any help or input.
Soft deck repair
- Thread starter Gary L
- Start date
I have no direct experience with your model, but I recall that our prior boat had a complete molded frp interior liner. The few times I had to access the narrow area between the liner backside and the deck, I found that considerable areas had been glued to the deck/cabin part with thickened poly mush of some sort. This left a varying air space of about a quarter to a half inch. Adding some new hardware to the cabin top was interesting, to say the least.
I would hazard a guess that you will need to remove a larger piece of liner than the size of the repair. If it's a flat section, you could always try to cut a matching-color piece of plastic laminate for a trim cover when the main repair is done. If it's a section with curves or corners, you would have the challenge to making a molded piece of frp yourself.
Others here have fixed soft decks inherited from prior owners. I would guess that they will be adding a lot more specific and useful information.
Best of luck to you.
Loren
I would hazard a guess that you will need to remove a larger piece of liner than the size of the repair. If it's a flat section, you could always try to cut a matching-color piece of plastic laminate for a trim cover when the main repair is done. If it's a section with curves or corners, you would have the challenge to making a molded piece of frp yourself.
Others here have fixed soft decks inherited from prior owners. I would guess that they will be adding a lot more specific and useful information.
Best of luck to you.
Loren
senecadaze
Member I
tenders
Innocent Bystander
Good point, Senecadaze. The aft lower shrouds are supposed to be only hand-tight anyway. This repair could certainly have waited until the fall.
Although I think you're going to find out that it is possible to do it your way, I would not have chosen to fight gravity on this fix. When I did it last year I did it from the top, and replaced the missing upper deck layer with a slab of material called G10. As others have said, it's not a technically difficult job but it's messy, and doing it from inside makes it much worse. You're going to need to keep cutting all of the headliner and lower fiberglass around wood that's wet or rotted. Then you'll need to scoop all of that wet balsa out and replace it with 1/2" replacement core - balsa if you want, though I recommend foam. Once that's epoxied in upside down you somehow replace the lower fiberglass layer, bond it to the surrounding surface, and make the headliner look as good as you can.
Odds are you'll eventually need to do this on the other side of the boat. I would recommend supplementing the stock chainplates with something with a much larger backing plate, as the 3x3" piece the factory put there is not very substantial.
Although I think you're going to find out that it is possible to do it your way, I would not have chosen to fight gravity on this fix. When I did it last year I did it from the top, and replaced the missing upper deck layer with a slab of material called G10. As others have said, it's not a technically difficult job but it's messy, and doing it from inside makes it much worse. You're going to need to keep cutting all of the headliner and lower fiberglass around wood that's wet or rotted. Then you'll need to scoop all of that wet balsa out and replace it with 1/2" replacement core - balsa if you want, though I recommend foam. Once that's epoxied in upside down you somehow replace the lower fiberglass layer, bond it to the surrounding surface, and make the headliner look as good as you can.
Odds are you'll eventually need to do this on the other side of the boat. I would recommend supplementing the stock chainplates with something with a much larger backing plate, as the 3x3" piece the factory put there is not very substantial.