Couple of thoughts before you go yanking the sawzall out cutting through the floor. My guess is that you had a leak around the pedistle base someplace and water seeped into the plywood - had a simular issue with mine. The whole cabin sole is built on a piece of plywood but that plywood is actually accessable from beneath the cockpit sole. The interior has a liner in it and if you crawl into the quarter berth you'll more than likely see a gap between the liner and cabin sole. Check the sail locker as well - gap may be bigger on one side than the other. If it were me I'd remove the pedistal and the idlers - you'll probaly find a 3 or four inch hole in the floor and you can probably reach in and pull the bad stuff out. Depending on how tight things are you can probably slide 1/2 inch piece of okum or marine plywood between the liner and the cabin sole - butter it up with epoxy and clamp it until it cures. Make sure before you put the pedistal back that you seal the expo sed wo od with expocy.
Of course you could always pull the engine crawl in cut an opening in the liner and replace the ply that way - but that makes it way too easy. -- Dave ex C27 now blissfully boatless Cape Cod -------------- Original message -------------- From: tim ford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I dont want to come off as one of those guys who hate Hunters, but their > cockpit soles are > notorious for this problem, at least on the 285's. A friend had to > basically tear out the > entire floor and redo the core and glasswork over it. I think I'd > probably try doing > the easy remedy first, based on how much flex is in the sole and maybe > drill a few tiny > pilot holes out from where you've identified the problem to try to > determine the extent to which it is compromised....if it's confined, > just an epoxy injection > may do the trick...I'm less enamored with Git-Rot, but other folks swear > by it. I'd inject West > with may be a little 403 in it, let that cure and reexamine the area. > Drill some more pirate > holes and inject if it is still mushy. > > Large areas, I'd just bite the bullet and resole the thing...nothing you > can't knock out with > a saws-all and a little sweat equity. Good luck. > > tf > > > > > > Harvey Rosenberg wrote: > > > > Hi Ray, > > > > I believe that the whole cockpit area is cored with plywood. I have > > the same problem, but I haven't fixed it yet. > > A dockmate has a Hunter and repaired by lifting off the fiberglas > > deck, inserting new plywood and epoxying over it, then painting the > > entire cockpit deck. But Catalina's deck are patterned, so the > > approach may be to expoxy the entire deck and finish with non skid > > paint. You could also cover it with wood or Starboard decking. > > I figured that with 2 boats in the family that we had a big investment > > them, so I bought a moisture meter. > > > > >
