Similar to the cockpit, we knew our foredeck was wet when we purchased Resande. It’s a common issue on old boats where hardware goes through the deck if the owner isn’t keeping up on leaks. We decided to tackle this project in Fall 2021, after hauling out for the season. We’re also not planning to add back our staysail boom. We’ll have a post about how we’re rigging the staysail without a boom in the future. Most of the steps are identical to our Recoring the cockpit post, but we decided to do something a bit different for the high-load areas that have the highest risk of future leaks. As you can see in the pictures, we used 3/4″ plywood just like the cockpit. The difference is we made inserts out of 1/2″ thick G10 fiberglass board and glassed these inserts into the plywood prior to laminating.
The areas we did this in are the high load areas: windlass bolts, new port & starboard cleats, and the staysail tacking point. These areas will all have thru-bolts and will benefit from the high compressive strength of G10 (plywood or balsa core will deflect under a highly tightened bolt).
What do you think? Questions on our process or suggestions for our next project? Leave us a comment below.
2 replies on “Re-Coring the Foredeck”
Great content! Keep up the good work!
Hey Guys , nice work. I own a Ericson 39b down here in New Zealand. We have just gone through Exactly the same re coring process on ours on the foredeck. Your boat looks in much better condition , albeit we are at the start of a long refit program . Love to exchange a few emails on stuff you have done. regards Kyle