COCKPIT FLOOR
So I've ready the the spongy cockpit phenomenon is
common in the older tempests, well my boat was one
of them. Mine turned out not to be that bad, the
forward quarter of the floor towards the cabin
entrance were a bit spongy but seemed to still be
relatively strong when I walked on them,
regardless they needed to be fixed. To get to the
spongy area I had to open up the cockpit lockers
and remove the plywood floor of each and then
remove the plywood bullhead that revealed the
spaced beneath the floor. This space, including
that under the lockers is filled with foam boards
that hopefully would provide flotation if anyone
of those spaced was breached from the outside.
After removing all the foam I could see that the
balsa core of the cockpit flooring was soaked and
the fiberglass sheathing was delaminating. It
seemed like an easy fix, scrape out the wet core,
salvage what ever of the fiberglass I could and
then re-fiberglass with new stringers etc.
Well....it was much more difficult than that!! I
had approximately 18" of space to squeeze my head,
chest and one arm into to do the work, not to
mention that it was also about 80+ degrees out.
The removal and preparation when well, it all
dried out in the summer heat pretty quickly. With
the fiber tape and resin and stringers prepared I
squeezed my way in with a respirator in place due
to the small space and horrible fumes. Things
started to go wrong when the resin/glass and
stringers refused to stick to the undersides of
the floor. No matter how long I waited for the
resin to kick and be at its stickiest, it just
would not hold, the strips of glass and resin just
dripped and peeled off no matter what I tried. It
seemed like the weight of the resin soaked glass
was just too much for
it
to support its self and there was no way to
support the stingers with the little space
available and get my self in and out of the space
at the same time!
I had to think of another way.... If figured that
if I could replace the core with plywood panels
and bolt them into place to the bulkheads with
angle brackets, things might work. I
chiseled out the appropriate size space in the
core, cut the plywood to size and with angle
brackets a screw gun and stainless screws and
bolts I was able to secure the panels in place and
provide a strong cockpit floor. This was not as
easy as it sounds since I still had to get in the
space with a screw gun and the materials....I
really should be a contortionist.
To make the floor and the panels and bulkheads one
solid piece I used stainless screws and beauty
washers and screwed the floor into the panels from
above, of course using 3M 101 sealant to prevent
water from getting to the panels from around the
screws. Even though I had to screw through the
floor, it looks really nice and won't hurt
anyone's feet since I'm going to be
making
a grating for the floor anyway!
