Last summer I made a notification that when sailing in rough weather, the boat took some water in. Maybe 10 litres in one hour. I relized later, it had to do with the broken frames and delaminated floors. Fixing them was going to be one of my golas for the winter and spring. I also decided to make some extra floors from acid resistant steel to give extra stiffnes to the hull below the waterline.
I took the old floors apart and added new 4mm thick oak veneers and laminated them again with West Systems epoxy. I was very pleased to notice that my job was usefull. The sipping of water in hard weather had stopped. The bilge was dry. I was so happy!
This fall I decided to lift the engine out in order to reach the frames beneath it. I was surprised to see that six of the frames just under and behind the engine were all broken. I have now prepared them so that I can makce jigs for laminating new frames. Trying to make atleast 1:8 scarfs in order to achieve a strong bond.
I am using oak. I know there are people warning about oak and how hard it is to glue oak with epoxy. I didn't find it hard the first time so. I am using it again. The point is to follow the glueing instuctions and make sure to make all the preparations needed. You have to make sure, that the epoxy will get under the surfase of the oak veneers. Then You will get a strong bonding.
