Deck delamination, purchase question, how to do the deal ...

Here is the situation. The boat I am interested in is OK, # one, in most
areas. Old engine, will get it checked out.

After checking over the deck very thoroughly, the "dull" sound of
delamination was discovered near where the dodger snaps are set in the cabin
roof. I never liked the thought of putting dodge snaps into a fiberglass
deck and this confirmed my thinking. How can the little snaps be bedded?
As far as I could tell, they just go through the top layer of fiberglass,
they are not supported below or anything.

It looks like moisture has entered behind the snaps. This has caused some
delamination around the area on the cabin roof.

Not a big area. The tapping of the cabin roof deck showed this. I don't
think this is totally wet core, more like delamination. But, it definitely
needs to be attended too.

I am in the buying, negotiating stage of this boat. I haven't made an offer
yet. Talked a little about it, but no real money has been put on the table.

The boat is some distance from my house, not real far.

What would you do? Should I ask that the area be repaired before a deal is
struck. Should I say "this is my offer subject to repairing this area" ...
or should I say "I am deducting XXX dollars from my offer for the
delamination repair".

I checked Don Casey's book. He shows how to drill a small number of holes,
fill with thickened epoxy, put some weight on the deck and let it dry. This
will do it, I'm sure.

But, since it is below the deck ........... the old "who knows" has me
worried.

If the area is just delamination caused by moisture getting in from the snap
holes ........... and I repair the area .........

What do I do about the snaps.

The snaps are the little thingy's that the dodger attach to.

I sure hope someone can help. I am very close on this boat.

My heart is singing and my head is issuing a warning.

HELP... Please ..

Lester Evans wrote:
> Here is the situation. The boat I am interested in is OK, # one, in most
> areas. Old engine, will get it checked out.
>
> After checking over the deck very thoroughly, the "dull" sound of
> delamination was discovered near where the dodger snaps are set in the cabin
> roof. I never liked the thought of putting dodge snaps into a fiberglass
> deck and this confirmed my thinking. How can the little snaps be bedded?
> As far as I could tell, they just go through the top layer of fiberglass,
> they are not supported below or anything.
>
> It looks like moisture has entered behind the snaps. This has caused some
> delamination around the area on the cabin roof.
>
> Not a big area. The tapping of the cabin roof deck showed this. I don't
> think this is totally wet core, more like delamination. But, it definitely
> needs to be attended too.
>
> I am in the buying, negotiating stage of this boat. I haven't made an offer
> yet. Talked a little about it, but no real money has been put on the table.
>
> The boat is some distance from my house, not real far.
>
> What would you do? Should I ask that the area be repaired before a deal is
> struck. Should I say "this is my offer subject to repairing this area" ...
> or should I say "I am deducting XXX dollars from my offer for the
> delamination repair".
>
> I checked Don Casey's book. He shows how to drill a small number of holes,
> fill with thickened epoxy, put some weight on the deck and let it dry. This
> will do it, I'm sure.
>
> But, since it is below the deck ........... the old "who knows" has me
> worried.
>
> If the area is just delamination caused by moisture getting in from the snap
> holes ........... and I repair the area .........
>
> What do I do about the snaps.
>
> The snaps are the little thingy's that the dodger attach to.
>
> I sure hope someone can help. I am very close on this boat.
>
> My heart is singing and my head is issuing a warning.
>
> HELP... Please ..

I bought an old boat that had a small area that was delaminated
thinking that it only affected a small area and should be easy to fix.
I opened it up and found more and more core material that was rotten --
basically the whole deck was affected. Based on my estimate, almost
25% of the deck core material was completely rotten, 30% was very
questionable, 35% looks "OK" but was very wet, and the remaining 10% is
sound and is dry. The fact that most of the deck areas were not
delaminated doesn't mean that those areas were good -- those areas have
enough bracing to prevent them from getting delaminated right away --
but the core material was either rotten or not-very-sound.

I am in the process of replacing all the core material on the entire
deck. Hope you will have a better luck.

May be a surveyer who arms with a moisture meter will be able to tell
how extensive the potential damage is.

Jay Chan