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The Decks
A good selling point on this boat was the fact that the decks were relatively sound; not perfect but much better than most Tritons. Unfortunately, at the time my boat was built, no thought was made about protecting the balsa coring from water intrusion. Or perhaps they did but didn't really care. In any event, any time a hole was needed in the deck for a bolt or screw or whatever, a hole was simply cut or drilled though and that was that. Naturally, water seeps in and over time breaks the bond between the coring and the fiberglass skins. A lot of Tritons have very soft, crackly decks full of wet rotten balsa coring that requires near complete removal and replacement. Its a messy job. Fortunately for me, or rather because I was a shrewd boat buyer... I found a boat with relatively good deck coring. I was told the boat was stored indoors most of the year and apparently, this was true. The initial purchase survey turned up local spots of wet, delaminated core around various fittings but nothing requiring a major re-core job.
The gelcoat on the smooth sections of the deck however were heavily crazed and beyond salvation. During the purchase survey, the Surveyor turned to me with a mischevious smile and said "you have some hours of sanding in your future". At the time I smiled too. I had no idea HOW many sanding hours I had in my future.
Core issues
After removing all of the deck hardware, I drilled out every hole left behind with a half inch or bigger drill and filled the hole with thickened epoxy. After the epoxy kicked, I then drilled out the center of the filled holes for the new mounting hardware. This ensures that any water getting under the hardware and into the bolt holes will travel completely through to the interior and will never have the opportunity to see balsa core. Every deck hardware mounting bolt is surrounded by solid epoxy, not balsa, and the core is protected from future water intrusion.
During the first year of the project, I went back over the deck and fixed any bad sections of coring. Around the chainplates, there were a couple of 2-3 inch square areas of wet core. I drilled a series of test holes with a 1/2 inch drill bit around the suspect area. Once I had identified the bad spots, I removed the bad core. Using various picks, screwdrivers, and an occasional bent nail chucked into my drill motor, I went in through the test holes and dug out any core that was wet or otherwise unsound. In the small areas I then simply filled the test holes and cleaned out areas with epoxy thickened with colloidial silica. This is okay but thickened epoxy is really not a great core material. Its fine for localized spots. I think if I were to do it again, for some of the bigger, 'localized' spots I would have removed the top skin and replaced the bad core with new core. I was new and intimidated by core repairs in those early days. Later on I did just that like around the starboard chainplates. Somehwere around here I have photos. I just don't know where that 'somewhere' is at the moment...
Under the mast step, I removed the wet core and filled it in with layers of biaxial cloth and epoxy. This is detailed under the Rigging description.
After re-coring the cockpit sole, I had gained a fair amount of confidence in coring repairs. The area under the jib tracks were wet and mushy. I made some test holes to locate the edges of the bad core. I grabbed my trusty skilsaw and in five minutes had the top skin off. In 30 minutes I had the old core out. In another 30 minutes I had new core in. After the epoxy in the new core had set up I epoxied the top skin back on. (I wouldn't re-use the old skin again - I have learned since then that it is easier to lay in new cloth). Then I applied some fairing filler (West 407) and epoxy and sanded smooth. Total time on the jib track core project, maybe an hour and half. The point being that after I had done it a few times it gets really fast. Core repairs may look daunting but with a bit of experience are actually quite easy. I don't think twice about cutting into cored decks anymore. The only trick of course is making it look nice cosmetically. Re-coring itself is dead simple.
The last bit of recoring I had to do was under the aft deck. I waited a few years to do it but once I started, it went relatively quickly. Using a skilsaw I cut off the old skin. Then I scraped - or rather scooped since much of the core was so rotten and soft - out the old core, glued in the new core, and re-glued the old skin back on. Then I ground out the edges of the cut skin and layed in three layers of fiberglass tape to bond the two sections of skin back together, making them whole again. A couple of applications of fairing filler (West 407) and some sanding and the aft deck was ready for paint. For some curious reason, the boys at Pearson inserted a small piece of plywood amongst the balsa coring when they built the boat. I guess they were running short that day and needed a quick fix.
Prepping for paint
After a year of work and with the need to sail becoming more pressing, I canceled my plans to paint the deck and instead ensured all the fresh epoxy had at least a coat of primer over it to protect it from the sun. I had ambitious plans to paint the textured areas of the non-skid sections with beige Interlux Brightsides while anchored alongside remote islands. That didn't work too well. The Brightsides over the textured non-skid was incredibly slippery. After trying it out on the forward cabin top I abandoned those plans. When I returned from the cruise I had tired white decks with faded green non-skid sections, some white primer over some repaired spots, and a beige forward cabin top. It was quite a sight. Either I have hid those old photos well, or I was too embarrassed to take photos. You will have to use your imagination for that one.
During the summer of 2007, I finally got serious about prepping the deck for paint. The first step was to remove all the old crazed gelcoat from the smooth white sections of the deck and to sand the texture out of the textured non-skid areas. I think I used mostly 60 grit sandpaper for this. Next time I might go with 40. It was a slow task but I was worried about 'dishing' out the deck and creating a scalloped look everywhere so I didn't want to be too aggressive with the sanding. I have seen crazing show up under paint over time when it wasn't completely removed and I didn't want that on my boat so I sanded it down until I had no more crazing. For the most part that meant that I took it all off. The textured non-skid areas were a much softer material and were hardly crazed at all. Where I had good stable material underneath I left it after sanding it smooth. In some areas, the non-skid came up in chunks, particularly where water had been pooling up. I don't know why. I know of another late model Triton that had a severe issue with this but on my Triton it was only in small local spots. Where the soft non-skid material was coming up in chunks I removed it completely. In other areas, it looked like bubbles were forming under the soft non-skid material. Where I found this I completely sanded it off. After a couple of weeks of sanding I had relatively smooth decks sporting many different colors.
Along the way, I patched any remaining holes in the deck. With the boat on the hard for a few years, it was easier to patch it all and not worry about water getting inside. Later, I would go back and recut any holes I needed in the deck. After this picture was taken of the old fuel fill and deck drain on the starboard side of the cockpit, I sanded the patches smooth and applied fairing compound.
The curved sections where the cabin sides and decks met were heavily crazed and difficult to sand out effectively. The outer edge of the deck where it curves up to the raised edge was equally crazed and difficult to sand. My solution was to get in there with my grinder and flap wheel attachment and dig out the bad gel coat. With the bad stuff out, I smeared in some epoxy with fairing filler. The fairing filler is much easier to sand and with a little machine sanding I had my nice smooth curves back.
On a similar note, the cabin sides were heavily pockmarked under the crazed gelcoat. After sanding off the gelcoat I kept finding lots of little 'holes' in the laminate. There was no way to sand through to solid laminate before I sanded through the laminate itself. This is a boat built in the early years when fiberglass layup was still being developed and defects abound. My solution was to mix up a thin mixture of epoxy and fairing filler and 'paint' the areas that were effected with pockmarks. After this mixture kicked, I sanded it smooth. I lost those pictures unfortunately. Too bad as they were quite dramatic with large sections of the deck covered in the dark red fairing filler. After sanding, it just added another hue to the myriad of colors already on the deck.
Applying High Build primer
With the decks filled and sanded to 120 grit, it was time to try my hand at priming. It was getting late in the season and my goal was to have the decks and hull primed
so I could have the boat professionally sprayed over the winter at an indoor heated shop. I was in a hurry and this clouded my judgement.
Disaster!
The temperatures were near the borderline of being too cold and the air was humid and with rain threatening every day. I was thinking "its only primer" so
I went ahead and rolled on the high build primer. It looked great to have a boat in a single smooth color again, even if my last coat of primer got rained on while I was finishing
up. Unfortunately, a few days later the primer started to peel up in spots. I was heartbroken. I sanded off what had peeled up and waited. A few days
later and I found more spots were peeling up There was no way I could apply expensive topcoat over the primer as long as there was a possiblity that more
primer would come loose and destroy my finished work. At this point, I tarped up the boat and didn't look at the decks again until the following spring.
Over the first parts of spring I repeated the past summer and sanded off the high build primer. I learned that high build primer is soft for about two days and then it sets up like a rock. It was very tough going getting all the primer off but eventually I got back to where I was a year ago.
So, using a 1/4 inch mohair roller, I rolled on the Awl-Grip High Build primer again. This time I had 70 degree temperatures and normal humidity. I also had some breeze and this made the primer kick off much quicker than it should have. Too quick for the roller marks to self-level so I had some heavy grooves in the primer to sand out. Yet another learning experience. Luckily, fresh high build sands relatively easily. Unluckily, it still took a couple of days to completely sand the primer smooth enough for a second coat. When high build primer is sprayed on, each additional coat can be applied after an hour or so. When the high build primer is rolled on, you need to wait 24 hours and then sand it before applying an additional coat. Waiting for better wind conditions, I applied another two coats on the critical areas, sanding in between each coat, and the entire deck surface had at least a coat on everything. I didn't get too excited about applying high build primer under areas that would have non-skid paint applied. It just wasn't necessary. The problem with sanding between coats is that it kind of defeats the purpose of high build. Its hard to apply a heavy coat when each coat is sanded down. With spray equipment no sanding is done between coats and it is much easier to build up a thick undercoat. Speaking of thick undercoat, my impression was that the thicker the better. The instructions say "thin as necessary". Since I wanted thick, I took that to mean 'thin only if you have to". This had the adverse effect of making the cured surface even rougher and requiring more sanding, thinning down the final product. After three coats I had 'decent' coverage except along the edges where I continued to burn through.
Applying final primer
While the high build application wasn't perfect, I deemed it 'good enough'. The purpose of the high build was to fill minor imperfections and prepare a base for final fairing. There were a few 'burn through' spots but overall, the high build had achieved its purpose. The next step was to apply some final fairing filler. I seemed to have forgotten to take pictures of this. That might be because it is so anti-climatic and not worth documenting. I used Awl-Grip's Awl-Fair product; an extremely fine grained, two part filler material that is like Bondo to work with but performs much better, Mixing in a 1:1 ratio, the Awl-Fair applies very easily. I found that a thin coat is all that is needed. Any more than that and it doesn't set up well. A thin coat fills any 'really' minor imperfections that is too fine for the normal West 407 fairing filler. Really great stuff. Sands super easy by hand with 220 grit sandpaper. I love working with it. Then, after sanding the entire deck to 220 grit I applied Awl-Grip's 545 final primer.
Whereas, the high build primer rolls on like mollasses, the 545 primer rolls on like water. Very thin stuff. Very white. Very BRIGHT! Like the high build primer I had to sand between coats. Unlike the high build primer, the 545 is very white and very bright in the direct sunlight. It was torturous trying to look hard for imperfections and smoothness all while the sun was refecting into my burning eyeballs. Not only was I getting just a little sick of sanding my decks but it was getting increasingly harder to do it. Using my dark tinted safety glasses made it barely tolerable. With the heat of the summer my glasses were constantly pooling with sweat. There was absolutely nothing fun about this job. I had the same issues with burning through along the edges too. It was too hard to see, too thin to sand without messing up in spots and I wound up with burn through marks along the edges.
The solution was easy. I had already planned to have the smooth areas of the deck sprayed at the same time the hull was being sprayed. For an extra day in the shop I had the painter spray three coats of final primer. Because it was being sprayed on, all three coats were applied about 45 minutes apart.
What a difference.
Smooth, solid, white everywhere requiring a minimum of sanding. And being indoors, there wasn't an issue of being uncomfortably bright under the sun. With all my practice, I had the entire deck sanded in about six hours. Then, with the remaining part of the day, I masked off the non-skid areas in preparation for the final deck topcoat.
And then I just walked away and left the painter to do his thing. I came back mid-morning with donuts and the job was done. The shop was too toxic so I couldn't see it until the following morning but after all my priming efforts I found having someone else spraying the topcoat to be refreshingly enjoyable. The following morning the masking paper came off. I thought the primer white looked great but the glossy white really made the boat look like a yacht.
Applying the deck non-skid
Applying the non skid paint was a pretty straight forward affair compared to what I had done already. I simply masked off the areas on the deck and rolled on the paint. The paint I used was Interlux Interdeck; a one part paint with the grit already mixed it. The grit is fairly fine but works quite well. If I were painting a tugboat I might go with something more aggresive but this boat is a coastal cruiser and I am happy with the choice. Unfortunately, Interlux doesn't have a good beige, in my opinion, so I mixed the stock beige with an equal part of white to get the shade I wanted.
Installing the toe and rub rails
After applying the nonskid paint I had to go home. Fortuitously, the shop had an open bay and a good selection of power tools as well as a slow schedule
for another week so it seemed a good idea to me to press ahead and install the toerail while I had indoor storage and all the facilities to make it happen quickly. I
wasn't looking forward to scarfing up 30 foot sections outdoors at the boatyard and then bribing a friend to help me install them. A few days after going
home I was back at the shop with the wood for the toerails and rubrails. Note: the pickup truck in the picture I bought for $500. The two boards on the rack
cost me more than twice the cost of the truck. Why teak? I thought hard about it. I really wanted a varnished toerail to set off the hull-to-deck joint.
Mahogany has been used to good effect but I like the look of teak slightly better and teak is far more forgiving of a little
neglect. Yes, the price is more that double that of mahogany but in the big scheme of things it wasn't such a big deal. I reasoned that in five years I might
wish I had spent the extra $500 and got what I really wanted. Its just a fraction of the total cost of the whole project after all. "What
the boat wants, the boat gets" as a good friend of mine is fond of saying.
A short pine mockup was made. The mockup allowed us to fine tune the shape until we found something that simply 'looked right'.
I should add that the toerail design was one I saw on another Triton and I shamelessly copied it. I think I had to guess on the height and width but the rough shape I simply stole from someone else. Its a great design. High enough to provide real security, it isn't so bulky as to look awkward on a little boat. The rubrail is basically the same ripoff. Why change a good thing?
Then we set about turning the nice teak boards into sawdust. The boards were rough sawn and it took several passes through the planer. It hurt seeing
my expensive wood turned into shavings. I think we filled half a trash barrel before we were through. Once the planing was done we milled out the toerails
to the shape we had already determined.
Then, the four 15 foot sections were scarphed into two 30 foot sections. Because this joint is not a structual joint, I didn't bother with getting the normal 12:1 scarphing ratio. I played with a couple of angles on some scrap before I found what looked 'about right' to me which I think is about 5:1. I made a jig to hold a hand saw and made the angled cuts. I was missing my low angle block plane but 15 minutes with a stiff sanding block was enough to get a smooth surface to glue up.
After letting the epoxy set up for a day, I took the clamps off and spent a couple of hours sanding the toerails. When that was done I applied two coats of varnish to seal the wood. A good reason to do the job at the shop was that I had an extra person to help with the installation. Actually, since I was paying the labor charge, I let the shop owner do the tricky work and I held the ends in place. Because we were both quite busy there wasn't time for pictures.
To install the toerails, we drilled holes, spaced about six inches apart, for the mounting screws first a hole for the screw in the wood, then a counter bore was drilled to counter sink the screw head, and then with the toerail in place a pilot hole was drilled into the deck. The toerail was then temporarily fasted to the deck with screws as we went down the line, drilling all the mount holes and pulling the curving toerail into position as we went (that was my job) Once this was all done, we pulled all the screws out and a thick bed of polysulfide sealant was laid down. Then the toerail was permenantly screwed into place. Nothing about the job was really difficult but having two people was key.
Like the toerails, the rubrails were milled up from the same stock. Instead of scarfing them together though, a simple 45 degree cut was made in the ends and during instalation they were simply 'jammed' together and screwed into place. It looks good and works fine. The rubrails are mounted by countersunk screws spaced about a foot apart. Though I didn't do it at the time, a brass rub strip will be installed on the outside edge of the rubrail.
More coming...