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Spongy Deck - Aquafibre 33


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Have a 1980 Aquafibre33. She is in pretty good nick but does have one small spongy (delaminated?) area on the deck. In a previous life I had a Freeman with similar problems and it was cured by injecting foam into the cavity between the two layers of fibre-glass. This solution worked well but then the Freeman build has foam in the sandwich to start with. I think (can anyone confirm) that Aquafibre used balsa wood and this being the case what would be the best way to cure the "spongy"problem?

Many thanks

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Hi years ago I work for a company that manufactured poly urathene foams and pouring system they supply pu to most boat builders including princess yachts and fairline, broom to name just afew i recollet also years ago auqafibre the also hired one of the comanys pu injection m/cs.can uyou dill out a small sample

of the substrate to see if it balsa or foam? I would not use foam unless you can be sure that the void between the deck and inner skin is BONEDRY as pu and water/moisture react as a blowing agent i.e expands more but less density.If its balsa you could still us foam as it will adhere to every thing it touches,personaly Iwould not use the builder type foam in a can as the strenth is not good in compresion you could use a pouring foam talk to technical at TRIDENT FOAMS LTD sorry have not got phone Nos any more but the are on the net based in NEWMILLS DERBYSHIRE just another idea injet with a large syringe grp resin mix into the cavirty if you go down the pu way or resin way dont for get you will need to have breather holes at the highest points to remove any trapped air hope this helps cheers

Craig

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Thanks Craig,

My problem is that my decks have antislip patterns worked into the fibre-glass. For that reason i want to access the area from below and expanding foam under pressure seems ideal. I used the builders stuff on the Freeman and it seemed to work ok. That said, I heed your comments and wonder what my alternatives are - even if I use resin or pouring foam (whatever that is :grin: ) the question is how to inject same under pressure.

Thanks again.

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I don't want to put a downer on things but for Broads boats there are at least three options for a cored deck - foam, end grain balsa, or chipboard :o . If it is the latter, then it's only a matter of time before one spongy section becomes a whole spongy deck.

Although working from above makes it more difficult to finish off cosmetically, it's a lot easier to do the actual work, and a lot easier to make sure you get a good bond between all of the various layers. I'd strongly recommend going from the top down rather than working from the underside (I didn't have an option on my pirate, and now have some overalls that stand up on their own, plus lots of drips of epoxy down the sides of my v-berth (that will get covered when I finish fitting out the interior).

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As far as I know Aquafibre used end grain balsa but I only say that as I read it somewhere. Is there anybody on this forum from Richardsons, they were I believe part owner of Aquafibre once so might know the answer. Clive are you there? :bow

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As far as I know Aquafibre used end grain balsa but I only say that as I read it somewhere. Is there anybody on this forum from Richardsons, they were I believe part owner of Aquafibre once so might know the answer. Clive are you there? :bow

I suspect Clive may know more than me, but equally I'd suggest that the only way to be sure is to start taking the deck apart (from whichever side you decide to work from), and have a look.

Incidentally, if you work from the top you should be able to cut panels of the top laminate out and lift them off whole - if you were careful and cut around the moulded non-slip, then it might be possible to conceal the joins when they're laminated back into place with non-slip deck paint (done properly it can look pretty good, and it's far easier than a cosmetically-perfect gelcoat repair, or working from the underside).

The problem with my pirate was that the plywood stringers glassed to the underside of the foredeck were completely waterlogged, rotten, and disintegrating. Going from the top down wasn't a sensible option, but replacing them with PU foam (whatever's inside the stringer contributes far less strength than the glass that gets laminated over it, so I went for something that wouldn't rot) and glassing them all into place was a hellish job that I have no wish to repeat.

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