Foredeck Rebuild

The foredeck had a couple of soft spots and it was obvious that the ply was damp in places. The deck beams needed some minor repairs and somewhere along the line I decided that the ugly and inconvenient scaffold pole that served as a mast compression strut, had to go. There was also a little water coming in somewhere.


The old compression strut.	Foredeck beams before the rebuild.

Removing the old deck was a challenge - never having done this sort of thing before. I chopped, sawed, prised and levered. It wasn't the best method but I got there in the end. At which point it became very obvious that the main bulkhead which forms the front of the coachroof and rather more besides, was full of water. The water had been coming in at the step in the deck and running inside the ply, exiting on the cabin sole. So more cutting and hacking and the bulkhead came out too.


Foredeck and bulkhead removed. The nearest two beams have been repaired.	The new bulkhead in place. On the side are the parts for the new mast supports

With the deck and bulkhead out, the beams had to be cleaned up and repaired in a couple of places. The hull was ground down to clean GRP in preparation for glassing the bulkhead back in.


No it wasn't that easy! Measuring was a fiddle and cutting such expensive ply is scary.	Two oak blocks were epoxied onto the cast-in ballast to provide bases for the new mast supports.

The mast support is glued and bolted to the beam in front of the bulkhead.	An extra lamination was added to the beam on the front of the cabin.


The new ply deck was dry fitted before being removed again for gluing.	After gluing and screwing down, epoxy fillets were formed on all the joints

A thin fibreglass cloth was cut...	and epoxied over the whole deck.


A thick ply base was fixed under the tabernacle to spread the load.	The tabernacle in place.

A new pinrail was made by the local blacksmith.	Pinrail in use.