New guy with an old boat but I love the way she rides. It's a '86 36 Open...oldie but a goodie. These boats are beasts on the sea !
My cockpit deck is soft in a few areas, I started a discussion on Facebook and learned quick that this is a popular subject. I bought this boat last Spring and previously owned a 33' Bertram that had the same problem. Once difference being that the Bertram deck was made to be pulled up and reinstalled.
So has anyone cut their deck out, recored and reinstalled ? How do you get the deck to sit at the same height and fastened to the surrounding area ?
06-28-2022, 01:40 PM (This post was last modified: 06-28-2022, 01:45 PM by Misdirection.)
Hello, I also have an '86 Open! Great boats. I do not have any soft spots in my deck, but do on a hatch.
But, there is a post on here about a guy who had soft spots on his swim platform. He used inject a deck and then basically used silly puddy to help match the anti-skid pattern when it touched up the injection holes. You could try something like that. Ill see if I can find that post / video on YouTube.
But if you have to, you can cut the deck out on the groove around the outer edges, remove, gut it out from the underside, and reglass. I'm sure there is a YouTube video of someone doing that. I know the marina I store my boat at has done this on other boats.
Good Luck!
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Here is the post I was thinking of. Perhaps you could try a similar approach.
Thanks very much Misdirection, good to know someone else who has the same boat ! It really does ride well and I can see myself in it for a while.
I've heard good & bad about Inject-a-Deck, most warn against using it but I've only got about a two square foot area that is soft so it's very tempting.
I'm starting my research and I really want to understand how in the world you reinstall the deck so that it's straight and in alignment after repairs. There might be some supporting beams underneath but if so, I haven't seen them yet.
I'm going to email Tiara customer service to see if they have any words of wisdom, stay tuned !
Post a picture of the non skid to see what you are working with, you can try to drill small holes and use a high pressure glue injector with gorilla glue and later cover those holes with gel coat. If your nonskid is little squares, you can try drilling in the middle of 4 squares. Another option is to cut using an oscillating tool on the area's where there is no non-skid, lifting it and replacing the core in there.