Deck & structure

A blob of 5200 and a wet deck

It started small. On Day 5 I finally got dock cleats for my main lines, so now I can just drop a line. The rest was still tied to the dock frame with strings.

In February 2022 I opened the deck around the starboard chainplates. The hole had not been fixed AT ALL. The previous owner had just poured a fist-sized blob of 3M 5200 on it and hoped it would keep the water out. No, it didn't work.

I took off the top skin. The core was partly rotten and heavily soaked. At first it didn't look too bad, but almost the whole area was spongy and wet. Four hours of grinding and sanding followed, including the top skin itself. In a couple of places I cut a bit out of shape, to fix during re-coring. The last picture is the view from below.

New core

I cut a new core from marine plywood, the same as the original. I sanded and degreased both sides, put polyester resin with a little chopped glass on the bottom skin, laid the plywood in, and loaded it with four bags of sand. I needed more, but that's all I had.

Two hours later, when the resin had gelled, a layer of thickened resin went on, and the old top skin went back on top, under fourteen bags of sand. I finished at 8:30 PM.

Then came glassing the gaps. Easy to say, but it was four hours of pretty nasty work.

The non-skid pattern was a problem. It's a nice pattern, but making it again on the repaired area isn't simple. So I made a mold from the existing deck: mold release, gelcoat, one layer of 1708. I only had finishing gelcoat with me, so I didn't wait for it to fully set and laminated as soon as it gelled. It didn't gel everywhere, flaked and mixed with the resin, so it got messy. Probably I'll make it again, but it doesn't look bad even now. Here's the original deck surface, and my home-made "negative".

Then the fairing: TotalBoat fairing compound and sanding, round one. Round two. In April it was done, with gelcoat painted on just for protection. The final fairing will happen when I paint the deck.

Stanchions: empty boxes

Next came the stanchions. On the starboard aft one I cut the old mount out. There was no wood left at all. The flange had a strange 3 mm step on one side. It looks like it was meant to overlap the toe rail, but the holes were drilled in the wrong place.

I made a new oak block, drilled an oversized hole for the pipe, filled it with structural putty and drilled it again, so only plastic touches the metal. Then I set it to the hull with the same putty and glassed it in: two layers of 24 oz woven roving and 1708 on top. The bottom overhang will be cut off.

Then all the old stanchion support boxes came out. All five we opened were empty, with the wood rotted away completely. Someone had put a thin layer of epoxy over the cracked gelcoat and broken glass around the screws, then 3M 5200 on top. The 5200 stuck to the deck pretty well, but not at all to the stainless. And all the stanchions are hollow, so any water that gets into a pipe goes straight to the wood. A good deal for future maintenance. My dad helped me with this one.

Here are the new blocks, ready for the structural putty. In one place somebody had "repaired" oversized holes with unthickened epoxy, and of course it fell out. I dug out all the cracks and filled the cavity with putty.

A week later the oak blocks went in from inside, with 1-inch holes drilled for the stanchion pipes, so only plastic touches them. I marked the screw spots, drilled them out to 10 mm and filled them with thickened epoxy, for 1/4-20 threads and 2-inch screws later. For now there's one layer of 3 oz glass over the stanchion holes, until I paint the deck. Then we glassed the blocks to the hull with two layers of 24 oz roving.

Drains, handles and a bad elbow

Then the deck drains. I broke the seal, and the tubes came right out, so the deck side had never had a real seal. I cleaned everything and refilled the holes with TotalBoat flexible epoxy. Messy, but not bad.

I took off the cabin top handles, drilled the 5200 out of the holes, countersunk them and filled them with thickened epoxy.

May 2022: deck cleaning. That's all. But hours with the pressure washer gave me an elbow problem for two weeks. Correction: seven months and counting. Correction: ten months. Never underestimate a pressure washer.

Then I tested the drains: masking tape on the hull outside, and flood the deck. Two were good, and two still leaked in one spot each. I sanded them again and put two layers of 6 oz cloth over the bad spots.

The deck-to-hull nightmare

On the starboard side the hull-to-deck joint had no sealing at all and leaked in several places. The old sealant was dry and came out in pieces. So I decided to take the aluminum toe rail off and look.

Uff... it was hard work: a rubber mallet and the oscillating tool to break the 5200. And up close, the rail had never really been sealed. The sealant mostly didn't stick to the aluminum, and it covered maybe 10% of the area where it should be.

What's under the rail? The previous owner had already "sealed" the joint: he cut a 5x5 mm groove and put some putty in it. That's it. With the hull flexing and almost no bonding area, it cracked and let water in.

So, a lot of work. I routed a slot 1/4 inch wide and 1 inch deep, 36 feet of it. Cutting that in fiberglass is no fun. Then I filled it with West System epoxy, 404 filler, microfibers and colloidal silica.

Then came three layers of 4-inch 8.7 oz glass tape, on thickened epoxy to fill the low spots, and a skim of epoxy with 410 microlight on top.

New schedule: 6:30 AM to 3 PM. It was just too hot: 25 °C in the early morning and up to 40 °C during the day.

I made a stupid mistake: I left masking tape under the laminate. Then I spent ages sanding out the edge and sanded through the gelcoat where the tape was. NEVER again.

Then the dry fit of the rail, and drilling the screw holes. I almost cried drilling holes in the thing I had just made waterproof. Then I "painted" it all with gelcoat. Gelcoat in that heat is really hard.

The next day I sanded the gelcoat off. To get it smooth I had to sand nearly all of it away. So: no fun, time and money for nothing. Lesson: at least three coats of gelcoat, probably 3–4, or don't bother.

Then the rail went back on with 3M 4200, and I hoped for the best. In the heat, 4200 starts setting in 15–20 minutes, so it was a real fight to get all the screws in before it set. Two hours later it was almost cured. I still needed 6–10 more screws.

And a big cleanup.

The next week I cleaned the 4200 squeeze-out off the toe rail and re-bedded the fuel fill.

More holes: I sanded the patched cabin handle holes, took off the wooden "eyebrow" trim over the cabin, countersunk and filled its holes, and filled the screw holes around the cockpit drain. And I checked: it looks like I can run the cockpit drains straight to the bottom without hauling out.

Cockpit drains from a bar sink

In September 2022 I found one more factory shortcut. Irwin used bar sink drains as cockpit drains. A great idea, right? No. They're foil-thin brass, not made for a hose and a clamp. Mine were half eaten, and that's after a life in fresh water, with a crack spilling water into the pilot berth. I replaced them with Marelon flush-mount drains.

While I was at it, I hunted for the mast ground. On the Irwin forum people said a 0-gauge wire runs from the mast base to a ground plate under the holding tank. Nonsense. There was nothing there but wet plywood. That area is fully glassed in, but the sink drain hose ran through it: a perfect trap for water.

For the countersink I made my own tool: a wooden cone at the right angle, cut on my CNC, with sandpaper glued on. I tried super glue, epoxy and hot glue. Hot glue is the best, and you can change the paper easily. I worried that the heat would make the paper let go, but the heat stays in a small spot, and it holds fine.

Then the second drain. Just look at the original one: a foil-thin brass kitchen sink drain. It was replaced with a Forespar CF254 Marelon flush deck drain.

Testing showed that my older son, who helped me the week before, hadn't tightened the clamps. Fixed. Family labor comes with family quality control.

Stanchions done right

October 2022. Here's how the stanchions should be, from Irwin's own drawing. The problems with the design:

• The stanchions are hollow pipes, so water gets in easily and runs down to the wood block.
• The block has no drain, so water collects there, and you don't see it until it's completely rotten.
• The pipe is welded to the flange, but not all the way around, so there are gaps.
• The flange is held to the deck with short wood screws.

And here's what I found: at the factory they drilled the holes about an inch too far from the hull edge, so the pipes missed the wood blocks and stood "in the air". To hide it, they laid nice laminate over the gap, but didn't fill it; they just stuck in some cloth that wasn't even wet out. That mistake also left a 1/4-inch gap between the flange and the deck that the sealant had to fill: another failure point. The previous owner tried brackets to the toe rail, which only loaded the wood screws until they tore out, and lots of 5200, which can't help when the stanchion isn't solid. The blocks were rotten, and nothing was holding them.

Earlier I had removed all the old glass and rotten wood and made new 3x3x4-inch oak blocks, redrilled them for 1-3/4 inch, set them on TotalBoat structural putty and glassed them to the hull with epoxy. I filled the hole with polyester putty and drilled 1 inch in place. I drilled the flange holes 1/2 inch and filled them with thickened epoxy. When it got too hot that summer, I glassed over the holes and left them.

Now came the finish: sand, open the holes and drill them clean to 1 inch, as deep as the stanchion pipe. Then a small drain hole all the way through, so if the sealant ever fails, water drips into the cabin where I'll see it. Insert the stanchions, mark the flange screws, take them out, drill and tap 2 inches deep.

Before that, I'd filled the stanchions with polyester resin, as an Irwin owner suggested. I like the idea, but resin shrinks and doesn't seal 100% to the pipe. I tested them by sucking air through them with my mouth: two of six leaked a little. So I also put 1-1/8 rubber plugs in the bottom of the pipes. That was a challenge. The best way: push the plug in as far as it goes, put a hose clamp around the part sticking out to squeeze it smaller, then drive it in with a hammer, using a bolt as a pusher.

Finally everything was cleaned with alcohol and dried, and the stanchions were set on 3M 4200 (removable, and more flexible than 5200) with 2-inch 1/4-20 machine screws.

Lifelines from Dyneema

With the lake drying up, I wasn't rushing the lifelines. But that week friends were coming with two kids about 7 years old, so lifelines suddenly became essential, even though anyone could just swim to shore. The lake is under 3,000 feet across at its widest.

I used 1/4-inch Samson AmSteel Dyneema, top line only for now. I measured 27 feet a side, plus 3 feet for splices, times two... six extra feet should be plenty, right? WRONG. Each side has four splices, not two. Why? The gate. I figured that out right when I went to make the last splice. OK, I'll buy more along with the rope for the lower line.

My first Brummel eye splice: not bad. For the gate: a thimble on one side and the original pelican hook. I ground and polished the hook eye to be easy on the rope. The radius is too small (AmSteel wants 3/4 inch minimum), but the rope is rated at 7,400 lb, way stronger than the stanchions, so I'll leave it for now.

Leaks, one by one

My November 2022 vacation confirmed the main rule: everything on deck I haven't touched is leaking. New deck handles went on, bolted from below and bedded in butyl. A two-hour water test showed no problems. All but one place got 3/8 bolts. On the long port handle, one insert was loose in the wood, so the second bolt became a big self-tapper, about 1-1/2 inch into the wood, between two bolted spots. A compromise, but it should last for years.

I have no idea WHY the mainsheet traveler frame was mounted with wood screws, but that's a MASSIVE opportunity for leaks. Re-bedded and back.

The centerboard "gooseneck": wood screws replaced with through-bolts, on butyl. And the centerboard cleat re-bedded.

In December the front hatch was re-sanded, re-bedded and put back together. In June 2023 it got a vent, and the dorade box got a drain hole.

June 2025: snaps for hatch covers. Yes, I bit the bullet and drilled the deck again. It may cause small leaks some years from now, but the covers make the hatch lenses last longer and give a little shade in the Texas sun. And if it leaks, well, I know the rule.