Floor Core question -

[oldbluesplayer]

On the last outing of last season, the port side seat pedestal pulled loose from the floor. I haven't worked on it over the winter, no space to do glasswork inside, and I prefer doing glass with the temp at 60 or better, but it's now gettin there.

So last weekend I removed both seat pedestals, and cut out the floor skin under the port side, the one that tipped over. It seems the coring is 6" plywood squares in the forward area where the seat pedestal mounts, but then back a little ways it changes to end core balsa. All appeared to be soaked.

When I measure the thickness, it appears to be 3/8" - but that doesn't seem right, nor jive with other comments I've seen in here - I also seem to recall reading somewhere that in the days this boat was built (1973) that endgrain balsa was only available down to 1/2" thickness, no thinner - so I'm guessing that proper thickness for the recore is 1/2".

I'm planning on replacing with ply, not synthetics.

What thickness do I want to go with ? 1/2 inch ?? I don't want to end up with the replaced areas standing up above the surrounding edges of the old floor skin, creating a monster fairing job.

thanks

Bill

[hermco]

Use what will give you the desired end result. I would use a thinner core material and make up any difference with glass wich will give you the strength you want in a high stress area.

[Ed]

Ouzo-

Sound familar???

[dcobbett]

FWIW, I re-cored the cover on the fuel tank coffin of my 1976, 20'SF a few weeks. The old core was 6" +/_ squares of 3/8" marine ply (Fir). I started the new core with a layer of 1.5 oz mat on the inside surface of the glass, then 1 layer of 3/8" ply (in 5 different sized sections), then 2 layers of 1708 (epoxy throughout) and I think the new core is stiffer that the old core was when I took the cover out of the boat.

[oldbluesplayer]

dcobbett - that sounds exactly like what I found in the seat pedestal area - good info

thanks, all -

pix to follow

Bill

[cSickNick]

Ouzo-

Sound familar???

Sure does!

If you need a person to test the integrity of your pedastals, i have the guy!!

This guy can take out a pedastal anchored in concrete!!

- Nick

[CapeBoater1]

My boat came with two Todd swivel chairs mounted on the original ice box seat. At first I wasn't sure if they were original, but afer examination, I determined that any good sized person would rip the cover right off the icebox and end up in the splashwell if I took off fast or hit a big wave. Also my feet were dangling above the floor when I sat in one and I'm not short by any stretch of the imagination. So I promptly removed them before my brother-in-law decided to come over and sit in one!!

[oldbluesplayer]

LMAO - so, CSN - I take it that you and Ed did a little structural stress testing ???

my son is all I need - 17 yrs old, 6'3", 230 lbs. that and soft core, mix well with 4 footers, and ....Oooops, there goes the seat

That whole incident had me thinking about building boxes to position up front, then go with much shorter pedestals, to reduce the torque moment available, reduce the possible stress that could be put on the mounts, but I think doing that over a soft floor is wrong, so I'm going to go ahead and fix the floors first, then we'll see where we go from there.

I missed Newport last year, still glassing - don't want to miss Chatham !!

Bill