on my 33' egg, i came across a soft spot on the foredeck where the hole is for the anchor chain/rode. The softness is not around the entire hole but roughly half of it and extends to starboard side toe rail. Since i've never had any success with git-rot, i was going to drill a bunch of tiny holes over the soft area (and nearby area) and inject it with west epoxy 105/206.
the other more drastic approach would be to cut out the entire area, shape a new piece of wood and then fiberglass over that. I really dont want to do this so option 1 is in the lead but I'm curious to know how others have done soft spot repair on the deck close to the toe rails.
Sounds good. What size holes did you use? And how far apart? Not real sure how it could stiffen the deck up if there's wet balsa under the first layer of glass, but you can see what things look like better than I can from here. I'd have probably put a few layers of woven roving (3)instead of the wood since it can't rot. I'm sure what you did will be fine though. Did you dilute the epoxy with alcohol or use it straight? I might even leave a weep hole underneath for the water to come out maybe during the off season, but then seal it when you feel it's dry enough.
so i injected two part MAS epoxy into 20+ tiny holes i drilled around the soft area. also drilled and filled around nearby non-soft areas. i also ended up screwing in new wood under the affected foredeck area after coating the wood with epoxy. that stiffened up everything quite a bit. i hope when i get back to the boat again, the epoxy will have stiffened everything up even more.
I've never done this type of repair, but I'd be worried about shaping wood to fill something like that. I would imagine that it might be almost impossible to get the right shape and height without making yourself crazy. There's a product I bought at Boaters World last year that I think might be worthwhile for you to look at. I can't think of exactly what it's called but I think the guy referred to it as cat hair. It comes in a can and works like epoxy. You scoop out however much you need and mix in the activator. When I used it, it hardened in about 2-3 minutes. (Maybe too much activator?) But it dried hard as nails and you could push it into various crevices once you cut off the top layer. Then flatten it down and put the cut off part back on. Fill the kerf of the saw blade back in with your West Epoxy mix. (406 and silica?) Let me know what you end up doing and how it works out for you. Good luck.
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