Trojan Boat Forum

it was not long ago that I decided to repair a soft spot on the fly bridge of my F32. being an adventurus fellow I pondered many different plans of attack. from drilling holes and injecting closed cell foam to removing the wraparound and console and liftng the entire top from the drip rail up. well I took a less invasive (I THOUGHT) route by cutting in to the outter skin of flybridge in an "L"shaped section from the ladder entrance foward 6 feet as wide as the console would let me cut and 6 feet toward the starb. side using the console and the stanchons of the rail as as guides.What I found when I lifted up the skin it was not pretty sight. aprox. 18 sq .feet of frozen mush . (this is where It gets good) using a wood chisel and hammer i start chipping away at the frozen mess only to find another thin layer of fiber glass with another 3/4" of mush under it . here we go again this layer was a lot easyer to cut, a razor knife did the job and now back to the hammer and chisel for the second round of chipping this time cleaning the top side of the salon ceiling .now this is being done with a winter cover on so I could not straighen up while working and the fact that Iweigh in at about 250 lbs doesnt make it any better. enough whinning for now. cutting 3/4 x 3 strips and glassing to the top of the salon ceiling laying down fiberglass mat to give strenth between layers of wooden core and the second layer of 3/4 strips was the easy part putting the skin back on looks to be a special treat ill let you know how it turns out ON ANOTHER NOTE ; EDDIE "O" Has been Working Feavershly on his Beautiful "LITTLE WOMEN" F32

Eventually I'm going to have to do the same thing with mine. Can you post some pics of your repair?

Mrsluggo wrote:.... was the easy part putting the skin back on looks to be a special treat ill let you know how it turns out

Suggestion, instead of replacing the old skin why not consider putting in new glass and gel and then covering the whole fly floor with a couple of coats of non skid gel?
When my decks, fore and side were re-cored they put new skin to ensure that the glass (old skin in your case) did not have any voids when the top finish was applied.
I think by trying to use the old skin you may have the potential of leaving some air spaces which will be a source for future problems.

Here is a picture of the finished job after I fixed mine. I used a hole saw and cut into where the seat pedestal bolted down to the deck and cut out all of the wet core. Then I fiberglassed in a new piece of plywood, then covered up with the teak pad.

Willietrojan, looks like you did a fine job. I would like to learn how to do fiberglassing and gelcoating. We have fiberlassed some but that was in our old boat. I think it would be nice to know the tricks of doing it.

I probably wouldn't put any wood back. I added thickness/coring on my 26 offshore boat using Divincyl - light and string ... when wrapped in fiberglass and Epoxy!

Comes down to cost and I plan on it not getting wet again!

Here I rebuilt the entire flybridge deck and never took a damned picture. It only took one day and the trick was making little jigs to match the camber of the deck. Then you just lay the sheets of foam on the jigs and glass a couple layers together and drop into place.

I'd say 1/2 of mine was rotten - don't know how it supported us! I had the guy who now runs my boat shop just build a whole new deck out of closed cell foam sheets and glass it all in...while I lended moral support.
If you're in FL, maybe he'd do it again since we sure aren't building any boats yet!?

I am sure I am going to need to do this in the very near future as well. When underway, I get a drip of water into the cabin area between the windows (about where all the wiring runs) and I started to notice a slight list to the starboard side this past summer. From a previous thread, I know these are a cored floor. Is there a fiberglass ceiling layer? My '77 F-32 has the perferated vinyl headliner with wood strips on the interior. Can this project be tacked from the top side only with out destroying the interior?

FINS wrote:I am sure I am going to need to do this in the very near future as well. When underway, I get a drip of water into the cabin area between the windows (about where all the wiring runs) and I started to notice a slight list to the starboard side this past summer. From a previous thread, I know these are a cored floor. Is there a fiberglass ceiling layer? My '77 F-32 has the perferated vinyl headliner with wood strips on the interior. Can this project be tacked from the top side only with out destroying the interior?

Yes and it should be... fighting gravity from below is a very risky way to go. How can one be sure that the replaced core pushed up from the bottom has a void free contact with the underside of the deck? I cringe when I see people doing deck re-cores that way. It seems people are worried about disturbing the anti skid gel finish on the top sides.... that is the easiest thing to replace. It can be reapplied with a roller!

Here is how to do it from the top:


Full details here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/32233258@N ... 792002787/

In the meantime check this for your forward cabin leaks while underway:
Make sure that the rubrail is sealed both top and bottom as it is likely that the bow wake is splashing up under the rail and water drips in and runs down on the inside of the hull. When this happens you need to remove the V berth cushions to check and see if the bottom edge of the wall finishes have got wet, as they rest on a horizontal rib that pools this water! Been there done that.