[Jack Aperio]

Just finished replacing the forward deck on my 1995 4000 Express. I had noticed a small soft spot to the left of my anchor deck switches at the end of last summer. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that water had seeped into the core around my windlass, deck switches, and hawse pipe. I have had the boat for over 13 years and had no idea this was happening. No leaks were apparent anywhere. It still amazes me how severe the damage was. What we estimated to be a one week repair ended up taking over three. I guess the lesson here is don’t assume the bedding on your deck hardware will last forever.

The repair consisted of removing all deck hardware, removing the deck and core, bonding in a new 1 inch plywood core, grind, fiberglass layup, sand and faring deck, painting, and Awlgrip Griptex which was a much easier option than trying to match the original non-skid. A pretty expensive lesson learned that I thought I would share.

                               

[MC1600]

Yikes — that’s terrifying, Jack. I’ve fortunately never noticed any softness up there on mine, but of course now I’ll be paranoid.

[Jack Aperio]

Yikes — that’s terrifying, Jack. I’ve fortunately never noticed any softness up there on mine, but of course now I’ll be paranoid.

In hindsight, I would’ve paid closer attention to the underside of the deck from the anchor locker. You can easily see if the core is soft at any of the deck penetrations. In the future, I will seal these holes with resin, or some other penetrating sealant every year or two to prevent this from ever happening again. This is especially important if you anchor frequently. My all chain rode had worn that deck penetration considerably.
   

[dplunske@cwpm.net]

That's quite a job. It definitely looks like you repaired it right. I have a 94 4000 that I installed a new windlass last year and had to fill two holes. When we drilled the new holes with a hole saw the plugs that came out were solid.I was happy to see that because I've heard different stories of soft decks in that area!

[MC1600]

I’ll be looking under there when I’m down there this weekend, that’s for sure!

[Jack Aperio]

That's quite a job. It definitely looks like you repaired it right. I have a 94 4000 that I installed a new windlass last year and had to fill two holes. When we drilled the new holes with a hole saw the plugs that came out were solid.I was happy to see that because I've heard different stories of soft decks in that area!

The rot on mine was so bad it was difficult to really know where the greatest water infiltration was coming from. The factory installed Maxwell windlass was set with the rubber gasket and no sealant at all. The deck switches for the windlass must’ve been removed prior to my ownership as they looked like they were both installed with bathtub caulking.