2015 - A Tale of Decks and Bowsprits

February 2015
In 2014 I repaired the forward face of TAO's coach house, which also serves as the forward structure for the main mast step partner.  As a result of that project, I did some initial investigation into the condition of my plywood decks.  The short story, the only thing holding the plywood decks together from the forepeak back to the fore chains was the two layers of fiberglass sheathing.  I also had some delamination and rot issues in the bowsprit.  Since I needed to remove the bowsprit anyway to work on the foredeck decking.....It was time to tackle both projects, starting with removing the bowsprit.

Here are a couple of shots of the bowsprit during removal.

 Rot in the bowsprit tip.

 Delamination of the bowsprit where it fit into the sampson post.

All loaded up for the trip home.


April 2015
Work begins on replacing the decking on the foredeck.

 Foredeck with bowsprit removed.  I have to work around the mooring lines that hold the bow of the boat to the dock, and temporary lines holding the forestay to keep the mast from falling backwards.

 Stripping back the fiberglass sheathing that covers the deck so that I can find the seams and make templates for new plywood decking pieces.

 The plywood in the forepeak was the consistency of wet mush.

 Foredeck area showing the framing after removing the rotten deck.  The chainlocker is visible below.

Garbage bags of wet decking material that was ripped out....or rather scooped out.  It didn't hold together very well.

 Tyvek templates were created before ripping out the old deck in order to cut new pieces to shape.

 For the curious, I'm using MDO plywood as my new decking material.  It has a resin impregnated paper coating on both faces.  It is the same material used to make outdoor signage and it is also used to make cement forms.  I've had some of this stuff sitting in my back yard for several years exposed to the elements and it is still solid.  It's not cheap, but cheaper than marine grade plywood.  Besides, the decking is not a primary structure in this case.

 New deck pieces ready to be dry fitted.

Dry fitting begins....

May 2015
 After the initial dry fitting.  I pulled out some of the underlaying framing for repair of some soft spots and repairing and refinishing the sampson post.

While in there, I painted the chain locker and sent the chain off to be re-galvanized.  Then I fabricated a piece of framing that was too far gone to be salvaged, and re-installed the repaired pieces.

June 2015
Then I installed the new decking in the foredeck area and sealed it up.

Fairing and fiberglassing in the deck.

And painting in anticipation of installing the new bowsprit that was being fabricated while all this was going on.

But more about that in the next post....