Hi all,
any ideas on how to stick the foredeck back on a Nacra 5.2?
I had to remove one of mine to fix a torn beam bolt and am worried that using Epoxy means I won't be able to get the decks off in case I need to in the future...
What then to use... Epoxy with its superior sticking power or plain old polyester resin?

Dennis

do you have a pic of the foredeck removed? How did you remove it?

Epoxy. You said glue and that's what epoxy is. Stronger, better bond, and *ahem* more expensive than polyester. My rule is "Polyester is for building boats. Epoxy is for repairing them." Since I don't build boats ...

Obviously you can never be totally sure that you won't have to go back in, but imo you should fix all you can and then epoxy it.

You're right, the epoxy will be far stronger than the poly...maybe you could add some filler, like 407, to make it a little easier to cut through.

flatline, shoot me a pm w/ your email and I'll give you pics.

--
Rob
OKC
Pile of Nacra parts..
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Yurdle, great idea, I'll try some filler after I stabilize the laminate with some bare laminating epoxy.

To remove I took a small (really sharp) chisel about 1/3" wide and forced it between the hull and the deck. I had to go back and sharpen it again half way through. Took quite a bit of force and in some areas a little help from a standard hammer. In the end the deck came off with no major damage.

Flatline anything specific you need a detailed pic of?

Thanks all!

deleted duplicate post.



Edited by dennisMe on Mar 20, 2011 - 01:42 PM.

Just a status update.
There turned out to be more damage than I had thought, accumulated over the years I guess. I discovered there were a couple of reinforcing tubes torn loose so I decided to pull the other deck too. That was a surprise because the bridle tang had been repaired previously but only up the hull-deck join. That means at the bridles angle of pull about half the bridle load was being taken up by a 2cm (less than an inch) stretch of tired old laminate! I didn't like the look of that so I ground it all out and re glassed that to the hull center line. Then about half way the deck, what had appeared to be a superficial gel-coat crack turned out to be a tear through the whole laminate! It was only the deck that was preventing the hull from folding like a paper cup. Really glad I found that... There were also no reinforcing tubes present in that hull, where the other hull had them and I could see how they would have been of help preventing that crack from becoming a tear. So I rolled my own and put them in too. Oh yeah, "co-incidentally" there was also a torn stringer in that area which I reinforced.
Then I glued everything back with straight epoxy because I had forgotten to get the micro balloons I needed as a thickener and didn't fancy another couple of hours drive to get some more. I used capillary action to let the seams take in more epoxy and they are rock solid now.
To top it all off I used gel coat, mostly because that is all I can afford right now. I cleaned and sanded the epoxy areas after a couple of days in the sun. Then I sanded with 120 grit everywhere I was going to re-coat in the hopes of the new gelcoat adhering (keeping thumbs crossed here!). The repair looks very decent considering this was not meant as a full restoration. The rolled-on gel coat hardened up with a nice decorative orange peel effect which I'm sure I will learn to love. Can't be bothered wet sanding and buffing that up but I'm told that would come out well if I did. I just want to go sailing asap!

The moral of this story is: If you have an old boat, like I do (1984, well at least the starboard hull, the rest could well be older!) and you get the chance to inspect the forward hulls; JUST DO IT!

Nice! Sounds like you've been busy. I've got a similar adventure in my future.

--
Rob
OKC
Pile of Nacra parts..
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