Deck work begins (warning: low picture-to-text ratio)

Tritons' decks were built with a layer of fiberglass, a layer of balsa-wood insulation / support, and then another layer of fiberglass on top. Unfortunately, if any water touches that balsa wood, it rots immensely. This is bound to happen eventually, especially if the boat is fifty years old. As such, virtually our entire deck needs to be redone. This is easily the most time-consuming and expensive repair that we will have to do to Soup, and we've had a lot of naysayers.

Almost everyone we talked to, including "experts" had a different method of deck repair. Some people suggest going in from the bottom, most seemed to suggest going in from the top. Some suggested doing smaller areas consecutively, while others swore by removing the entire top layer of fiberglass from the whole deck. Some insisted on balsa wood cores, while others recommended various types of foam. Ultimately we went with a structural foam that comes in 4x8 foot sheets for $150 a pop (at discount). This foam is pliable by running it under hot water, easy to cut and extremely sturdy when saturated and glassed over. We also decided to do the deck from the top and in sections, and so we began with the bow, which was easily in the worst condition. Stepping on it caused it to squish down about three inches and felt as if it could give at any moment.

Also worth mentioning that it's now so hot that putting in twelve hour days is approaching impossible, but after five half-days we have finally finished the entire bow deck.

After cutting out the top layer of fiberglass off we were aghast at the condition of the balsa. While you could see the individual pieces (imagine a hardwood floor), it had the consistency of mud in most places, and we just scraped it all off with relative ease. I wish we had a picture of this, but we don't. Will get some of future sections.

Right side is glassed, left side isn't

The above picture is unfortunately (for education purposes) the earliest photo we have of the deck work, as quite a bit of work has already been done. We initially tried to remove the piece of lumber running down the center of the bow, only got a few sections broken off, and later regretted even touching it. The lower layer of fiberglass dips down underneath that board, creating a trough for it. If for some reason you find yourself in a similiar situation, note that it's much easier to simply work around that board.

The front stanchion was removed, as well as the first two on each side. Note that we didn't cut out all the way to the edge, as fiberglassing along that lip would be difficult, and you need some fiberglass to connect to the layers that you're laying down. Because the balsa was also rotted under those two inches or so around the edge, we did our best to scrape it out using screwdrivers, razors, chisels, etc.

After cleaning all the balsa out, the first step was to take a low grade filler and pack as much under these edges as possible. Also patched a few areas up, mostly around the sides of the center board as well as flushing out the pieces of board we had broken off.

There was a pretty sizeable crack in the bottom layer of fiberglass from the anchor-line hole to the edge of the starboard side. It's somewhat visible in the above picture -- the darker area towards the front of the bow. We did our best to flatten it out by screwing in a board from the bottom, and pouring some extra glass resin into it. Shoddy, but it ended up working out alright. The right side above has a single layer of fiberglass on top of the initial bottom support layer.

We cut two pieces of woven fiberglass to fit on either side of the board, as well as two pieces of foam. We poked small holes at one-inch intervals throughout the foam to better soak up the resin. Finally the first layer of glass went down, once it was completely saturated, but still wet, the foam went on, and a bit more resin was poured on top of the foam. We went home, got drunk, and let it dry.

Sanding foam

The next day I donned the respirator and began sanding. The foam stuck out a few centimiters above center board and the remaining edge of original glass, and there were some areas where resin had gathered and dried in pools. Everything was sanded flush, and more filler was added. The area was now sturdy enough that one could stand on it -- it still had a little bit of give, but the additional fiberglass layers remedied that.

Sanding

View of sanded foam. The 4x4 was used to weigh down the
foam as it dried (seperated with a sheet of plastic).

To finish we poured a layer of resin on the foam, added another layer of glass, poured more resin on top of it, and then put the final layer of thinner glass on top. All of this was done at one time, so that everything remained wet and would dry together. This was done in the early evening to give us more time before the resin hardened.

Finished Bow

The final result was amazingly solid and had no give. We're holding off on the final "pretty" sanding and painting until the whole deck looks like the above picture, at which point it will all be done at one time. Notice the thinner layer of fiberglass dries in a much flatter, smoother fashion than the earlier-pictured thick weave.