Deck delamination on Humber

[Balthazar]

Hi all,

Just bought a Humber Ocean Pro and removed one of the seats. When pulling the seat and breaking the silicone that was underneath in noticed that the top skin of fiberglass was lose.
Then as it rained few days I see that if I step on this surface I see water coming from the screw holes and the deck flexes slightly.

Did anyone had this issue before? Just wonder if this is something I have to deal with urgently or nothing special to worry about. I don’t know if the sandwich was made from balsa or plywood and have no idea if the hole thing under my deck is rotten.
Any thoughts or suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[TmMorris]

Is the hull filled with expanded polyurethane?

We used to find the squidgy floor issue on old Dellquay Dorys. Eventually water finds its way into the hull and foam soaks it.

We used to leave an old Dory for a season resting up on its transom having drilled some holes. After patching the holes it would be quite remarkable how much quicker the boat was with all the water in the hull!!!

[jwalker]

Normally Humbers have a ply deck - on the larger boats it's 19mm - then it is overlaid with fibreglass. The floor is screwed down to two parallel longitudinals before the fibreglassi is applied. Those same layers of fibreglass extend up the hull sides to join the edge of the deck to the hull.

Fibreglass doesn't adhere hugely well to wood; is it possible that you levered the seats so hard you've pulled the fibreglass away from the ply deck? Leaving the holes uncovered while it was raining wasn't a clever idea. You need to drill through the loose floor area, preferably where it won't be a future issue, and check whether it's good, solid wood which comes away with the drill or whether it's rotten wood.

When you've sussed the situation come back and tell us what you've found and go from there with advice.

[Balthazar]

Yup I did drill few holes in the deck and the transom but the shavings look dry in most of the places so I just epoxied the holes and I guess it will be ok for the next few years to come. Cheers