Producers/Hosts: Alan Sprague and Mike Joyce Studio Engineer: Amy Browne Topics: Popsicle Stick Viking Boat, Who’s Watching Should you read on watch? Is the water changing?  An update on the True Rocket Featuring a pre-recorded interview. FMI: obvikingship.com Call in show
Producers/Hosts: Alan Sprague and Mike Joyce Topic: Penobscot Marine Museum How much should you watch while on watch? How can kids get on the water? What about saving the sardine carrier “The Jacob Pike”? Guests: Niles Parker and Sam Temple, Penobscot Marine Museum; Capt. Giffy Full Call in show
www.epaint.com environmentally friendly bottom paint was one of the subjects discussed on the may 08 show. it seems to be the tops for bottoms if you care about not polluting. listen to the show for details.
Raw Faith as of November 07. Capt. George called on our Jan 08 show.
A drug runner boat that ran (flew) across the English Channel. The British coast guard had to use a special heliocopter to catch it. What I want to know is who got to drive it back to custody after it was seized. More to come on this subject on the April 10 boattalk, weru.org 10 am.
Here are two pictures of what Mike and I are talking about when we say,”cored decks or hulls or both”
The first is a drawing of a cross section of cored fiberglass. Fiberglass is laid-up in a mold then the coring material is laid over the fiberglassand another layer of fiberglass is layed over that sandwiching the core material in the middle. The resulting composite is strong yet much lighter than solid fiberglass, as long as the structural integrity of the coring remains as is.
The second is a photo of a boat only a year old, that had an improperly bedded hatch and unsealed balsa core in the hatch opening. Trim around the hatch opening has been removed to show the core and the rim of the hatch hides the top layer of fiberglass from view in this photo. As you can see the balsa is already showing signs of deterioration. If I hadn’t rebedded the hatch the core would be totally rotten in a few more years and the structural integrity in that area would have been shot.
-Alan
Cored is good, unless it is bad. The most usual trouble, like our example here. is water getting into the deck followed by delamination and composting. Especially in the kinds of “affordable” yachts most are familliar with, the most important steps in building with cores are unseen, a pain in the ass for the builder, and usually let go in a job already with too much labor.
The right way to deal with a cored deck is everywhere the edge of the stuff is exposed it must be cut back and sealed. Companionways, hatches, dorade tubes , and hawse holes and so on. Everywhere deck fittings are attached the core should be replaced with solid blocking, and especially where things are under stress like winches and mooring cleats, chain plates, and so on. Ideally the core is back from the edge and sealed with epoxy,and then sealed in again with epoxy putty back out to the edge.
What can be done with a bad deck? Untill things get too far along you can attack the holes and edges, and of course always make sure everything is well bedded. When the deck is spongy everywhere and leaking below you may need a deck-ectomy. Simply (that’s a boat joke because it is all about details really) remove everything on deck, cut through the top skin all the way around as close to the edge as possible, peel the top of the deck off and carefully save, remove and replace the old core with something new and/or better, put the top of the deck back, reinstall everything right this time, and don’t forget to fix up the crack left by the cut. Maybe cover it with a nice wood deck that doesn’t even have to be too thick. M.J.
| Click on photo to view a larger version |
 Captain Brenda’s boat something French. |
 A model of scherezade. |
 Some boat Giffy full used to work on |
 Grenada – after the big hurricane |
 Scherezade – just before launch. |
