Mike HHH
Member
Hopefully a quick question, sorry for the long explanation -
The boat is a 1994 Weekender 300. Not worth a lot - maybe 15K, but it has served us well for 10+ years. However, not having to worry about kids at home has made us start to think that finally selling and moving up to something more cruising oriented might be nice.
The problem is that I can hear and feel delamination/softness on the foredeck between the large main hatch and the foot or so of cabin top in front of it. I removed the hatch today and expected to see a hollow, wet core - instead I see that the wood around the hatch is in excellent condition (attached pic 1). I used my fingers to loosen the headliner for about a foot and then used a multi-tool saw to remove about a six inch square from the ceiling in the area that was sounding hollow. Also to my surprise this wood showed no sign of water what so ever (pic 2). What the wood does show is that there was very little glue, epoxy, or whatever between the top of the core and the bottom of the deck.
Until about a year ago I sold boats for 4+ years and probably attended a hundred surveys. One of my first sales was a smaller Sea Ray with a soft deck and the (well known and respected) surveyor told the buyers that he did not see any obvious source of water to cause delamination but that sometimes you can have essentially mechanical delamination where the core becomes detached from the deck but isn't wet or otherwise compromised. I didn't really believe him until seeing the underside of my deck today.
My question is this - Given the age and limited value of the boat should put everything back together and save the pictures I took today and if we decide to sell the boat simply explain what I believe the issue is or should I tempt fate (I am the person who will usually make one cut too many) and try to remove a larger core sample to more conclusively show that there is no water in the core. I really don't want to risk screwing up the headliner.
Thanks
The boat is a 1994 Weekender 300. Not worth a lot - maybe 15K, but it has served us well for 10+ years. However, not having to worry about kids at home has made us start to think that finally selling and moving up to something more cruising oriented might be nice.
The problem is that I can hear and feel delamination/softness on the foredeck between the large main hatch and the foot or so of cabin top in front of it. I removed the hatch today and expected to see a hollow, wet core - instead I see that the wood around the hatch is in excellent condition (attached pic 1). I used my fingers to loosen the headliner for about a foot and then used a multi-tool saw to remove about a six inch square from the ceiling in the area that was sounding hollow. Also to my surprise this wood showed no sign of water what so ever (pic 2). What the wood does show is that there was very little glue, epoxy, or whatever between the top of the core and the bottom of the deck.
Until about a year ago I sold boats for 4+ years and probably attended a hundred surveys. One of my first sales was a smaller Sea Ray with a soft deck and the (well known and respected) surveyor told the buyers that he did not see any obvious source of water to cause delamination but that sometimes you can have essentially mechanical delamination where the core becomes detached from the deck but isn't wet or otherwise compromised. I didn't really believe him until seeing the underside of my deck today.
My question is this - Given the age and limited value of the boat should put everything back together and save the pictures I took today and if we decide to sell the boat simply explain what I believe the issue is or should I tempt fate (I am the person who will usually make one cut too many) and try to remove a larger core sample to more conclusively show that there is no water in the core. I really don't want to risk screwing up the headliner.
Thanks
