I've removed the old, soggy floor and bulkheads from my 2001 Bayliner Capri 160 (thankfully, the stringers were well-wrapped and dry inside!!). I'm preparing to replace the floor next, and will be using 1/2" marine ply, which I plan to give a coat or two of epoxy to penetrate the wood, then 'wet' encapsulated in a layer of 6oz cloth (ie, laminate the cloth while the penetration coat is tacky). Most of what I've read seems to talk about tabbing to bare wood, then glassing the deck surface after tabbing. I will obviously need to at least encapsulate the bottom of the deck before putting it down, as it will then be inaccessible. My question is, is it Ok to fully encapsulate the top, bottom and edges of the deck, then tab it into place, or should I do the bottom (and presumably at least the edges), peanut-butter the deck to the stringers and bulkheads, tab to the un-coated top, and then encapsulate/glass the top? (and if so, I presume that I should run the cloth over the layers of biax tape used to tab the deck to the hull?)
It seems like it would be a simpler operation to fully encapsulate the deck (top, bottom, edges), then lay that down and tab it, but that doesn't appear to be the general process that I see people talking about, so I'm wondering if the biax tape perhaps wouldn't adhere as well to the epoxy surface, as it would to the bare ply surface?
Similarly on the bulkheads - my thinking is to fully encapsulate the bulkheads (both sides, and all edges), then fillet/glass them to the stringers and hull. Is this Ok, or should I first peanut-butter/fillet them to the stringers and hull, then glass the fillets, then glass the top edge and sides (the bottom edge and side edges would obviously be buried in in the fillets at that point). Again, it seems that it would be best to fully encapsulate the bulkheads, then fillet/glass them into place, as it seems more likely I'd end up with more fully waterproofed bulkheads by encapsulating fully first, but also again, I don't see this approach talked about, so maybe my intuition is off base.
Thoughts/recommendations?
Thanks!!
It seems like it would be a simpler operation to fully encapsulate the deck (top, bottom, edges), then lay that down and tab it, but that doesn't appear to be the general process that I see people talking about, so I'm wondering if the biax tape perhaps wouldn't adhere as well to the epoxy surface, as it would to the bare ply surface?
Similarly on the bulkheads - my thinking is to fully encapsulate the bulkheads (both sides, and all edges), then fillet/glass them to the stringers and hull. Is this Ok, or should I first peanut-butter/fillet them to the stringers and hull, then glass the fillets, then glass the top edge and sides (the bottom edge and side edges would obviously be buried in in the fillets at that point). Again, it seems that it would be best to fully encapsulate the bulkheads, then fillet/glass them into place, as it seems more likely I'd end up with more fully waterproofed bulkheads by encapsulating fully first, but also again, I don't see this approach talked about, so maybe my intuition is off base.
Thoughts/recommendations?
Thanks!!