Expert: Daniel Patten - 7/20/2008

Question
I have a 1988 Citation 19' boat (3.7 ltr Mercruiser I/O) with a fiberglass hull.  The deck in the passenger area has gotten very soft and needs replacement.  

I am not an expert carpenter, and I need some tips on how to remove the existing deck and replace the rotted decking material.  At this point, I do not know if the stringers have rotted, or if the rotting is limited to just the deck.

The boat is a good runner, but I have taken it out of service this year due to high fuel costs.  I am contemplating selling the boat, but want to replace the deck before doing so.

Answer
[This is 3rd time thru if you have prev. ver. please disregard this., the browzer window times out and dissapears if I am called away for a few minutes.]

This is brief version but you need to take skill saw, set depth to top skin say 1/4" cut square around ,soft balsa core, remove top skin,
[save if in good condition], and wet core , you can dig out sides if wet, making undercut, but leave bottom skin in place, it's very thin.
Let this area dry for awhile, replace core[primed with resin] bond core into light weight glass putty like Corebond,or homemade stiff putty made with microballons, cabosil, and glass fibers.
   Grind surface of surrounding deck surface [2" to 4"] and bevel top skin so that at cut line it is mostly ground away.Make sure core bonds in low enough for glass

thickness.Glass over core and taper layers out at edge onto surrounding deck. Fair, using firing putty and block and gelcoat or epoxy primer and 2 part urethane, skip oil based paint.Dansmarinefiberglass