bertram 25 flybridge repair

[bertram 25]

My bertram 25 flybridge flooring is soft and spongy, what is the best way to attack this repair? This is the area where you would place your feet when operating boat from upper steering station.

[Carl]

My buddy had that on his 32' luhrs. Water made its way in, most likley from around the helm chair bolts.
He hired a fiberglass guy that's considered top notch in our area. He opted to go in through the top by cutting the top laminate just beyond where the soft spot was. He then lifted, pryed the top off. What was found inside was alot of wet dry rotted wood that was removed. Once all the wood was removed, he cleaned the area, ground the glass clean then made up wood blocks and epoxied them in like a jigsaw puzzle. Although not as tightly fitted as I'd have thought. After that he layered the top with a thickened epoxy and reattached the top section, cleaned what oozed out of the seam and left for several days. After that he faired the seam, repainted, reattached the chair pedestal and collected a whole lot of money for the work. He had the boat for 4 years with that floor being rock solid...till Sandy came along and beat the rest of the boat up pretty badly.

Not sure if right, wrong or both...but that's what was done to fix.

[Joseph Fikentscher]

If you go the route that Carl suggests, please take pictures so we can see how the floor/cabin top is constructed.

[ktm_2000]

I have not messed with anything like that before but I would like to emphasize some of the good points Carl made.

1. you can't glass easily from the bottom unless you want to take the whole top off, so going through the top is the way to go.
2. in replacing the core, small blocks are easier than 1 big piece to glue in and make sure it gets a good bond.
3. filling the gaps between the core pieces helps tie everything together.

[bertram 25]

great guys, thanks!

[mike ohlstein]

Do it once, do it right is always best.... but if you're just looking to get by for the next 6 weeks until you pull the boat........

The 'quick fix, get me through the season' repair is to drill a few 1/2" holes spread around the soft area of the top skin and pour in polyester (NOT EPOXY) resin until it's full. If the core is wet (probably) the resin won't really stick to anything anyway, and won't be too hard to dig out when you do the proper repair. It will just take some of the spongy feel out of the floor. If the core is dry rotted, consider using epoxy instead. The resin should soak into the rotten wood and there's a good chance that the 'repair' will get you through many more seasons.

If you drill a hole or two and don't find much or any core (because maybe the support was strips rather than a solid block), the quick fix is a can of expanding foam. Redo the whole thing over the winter.

[Carl]

Mike-- Is that like using Git-Rot?

I used that on my old plywood hatches and deck. It did last awhile...till it got soft someplace else...then filled that spot...and the spot next to it the next year

[mike ohlstein]

Yes. I'm pretty sure that Git Rot is just a very thin epoxy, and they charge a fortune for it.

[Waytooslow]

There is someone on THT that is doing the hole drill method with a water based glue (gorilla?) and they are claiming excellent results to the point when later doing the deconstruction it is hard to get it apart. Would be worth a quick search over there if that is the route you are headed.

[mike ohlstein]

I believe that. That's why I suggested polyester resin. It's a poor adhesive to start with, and it will hardly stick to anything wet at all.