Need advice and suggestions.

[Bryan A.]

I have a Witewater 25 cuddy with a spongy front deck. The deck is not rotted but lacks support from underneath. It is plywood with glass on both sides. I was thinking of laminating one or two beams out of 1/4" x 4" mohaghany to get the shape, running that beam over a jointer to clean up the sides then epoxy it into to place. I would like to avoid some sort of pole or post in the middle of the cabin.

I'm looking for suggestions or better ideas before I begin. Everyting is removed on the interior. And I hope to start as soon as the temps rise in the Northeast. Here are some pics of the interior and exterior. You can see a few pieces of wood I put in there a few years ago but that was a temp fix and didn't work out, now I have a better plan. Also any suggestion on getting the glue residue off the surface. The whole interior was covered in grey fuzzy material which smelled bad. I plan on filling the weave and painting white for ease of cleaning.
Thanks in advance for your time.

[strick]

I'm trying to imagine your plan. if you are talking about running the mahogany strip's lenghtwise to support the sides of that removable deck then I think you are on the right track. You should also laminate a piece to support the area toward the bow. You are going to plug up a lot of grinding disks getting that old glue off the sides of the cabin but I dont see any other way of geting it off.

strick

[Capt Chuck]

Bryan

I also think grinding would be very tedious. I have used zylene before when removing tuff glues and sticky residues. It stinks worse than your grey fuzzy stuff and is hazardous. So wear a protective mask

Health Hazard Summary: Overexposure to xylene most commonly depresses the central nervous system, producing headaches, nausea, dizziness, and drowsiness, and irritates the eyes, nose, throat, and skin

Since I don't know, I asked Mike at Wildfire about coatings. He suggested using a few coats of Duratec high build primer and then paint it with a brush/roller. It won't be mirror smooth but I think a clean orange peel effect would look good. Click here for Duratec Link

Good Luck and don't forget to shave off those "Forehead Spikes" hanging down from the skylight

[Bryan A.]

Thanks for the replies. I like the idea about the Duratech. I have never used it befor but it sounds good so far.

The deck is not removable, what I am tring to do is stiffen up the top sides deck which is the ceiling in the cabin. If you look at the shot of the top sides the aluminum windshield frame is what is giving it rigidity. I am about 230lbs. and if I stand on the deck it moves about 1 - 2 inches. My plan is to make a beam out of laminations with wood and epoxy runing from side to side. Any thoughts on that process?

The cabin has been mainly and area to store rods and tackle, but now as my two girls get older I need to make the cabin a little more user friendly. Like removing the head spilkes. [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]Any pointers or pics from the seavette guys on cabin layout would be greatly appreciated. She is a bare canvas waiting for ideas.

[Scott]

Brian
The 1/4” x 4 mahogany … you mean 1/4” thick, several of them stacked and glued together, to be able to bend and match the shape of the ceiling caused by the crown in the foredeck ?

I “think” with the span of the cabin ceiling(5feet?) that it might flex depending on how thick you make the laminate… I’m sure it would help. I think for that span I would put something on its “end” shape it to fit and glass it in. That will stiffen it up considerable. The problem is that its going to protrude from the ceiling more than your laminate of an inch or two.

The Seavette’s have a bulkhead mid cabin that divide it and provide support for the fordeck. I have pictures of Finsters somewhere ….

[Scott]

Finsters SaeVette

Looking forward


Looking aft


I think the bulkhead is aft of the big light and forward of the windshield

[abl1111]

A buddy of mine had a similar problem on his 23' Chris Craft Lancer. For his application, he took several pcs of 1/4" plywood, laminated them together and glassed it widthwise - attaching to the ceiling and the sides of the hull ( which might be a problem because you probably have a a liner - which won't let you tab directly to the hull ).

Hardest part was making a perfect fit of this support - but once done, he just stenciled it to the rest of the 1/4" plywood - cut, laminated and then glassed in place.

[Bryan A.]

Thanks for those pics. I found pics of another seavette that was for sale and where Finsters bulkhead is that one had two stainless bars instead so the entire cabin was open. I was trying to avoid that.
I thought about plywood on edge but I thought that might protrude too much. I was going to create the beam so it was thicker at the sides and thinner in the middle, maybe even some knees near the sides also. Basically shortening the span that would be supported by the thinner laminates. The head liner is out so anything is possible.

[Bryan A.]

Check this out.