Deck Work

We decided the time has come to replace the old mahogany deck on Stormbird. The old wood has been stained by the stainless screws used to screw the mahogany down to the plywood subdeck and it’s beyond repair. The caulking has cracked, was varnished over and it all just needs to come off.

We start by removing the anchor, chocks, handrails, hatch, cleats, deckfills, etc. Next Renee and I use crowbars to pry up the damaged mahogany decking. The stainless steel screws are mostly rusted to dust and yield easily to the crowbar.

Below – with the foredeck and subdeck removed we have a nice view of the forward stateroom and chain locker.

Below, we pry the decking off the gunwales – the plywood subdeck looks worse than it is, not punky anywhere, but took a while to pull some of the fasteners because some were bronze screws and some were stainless (??!!).

The sides and aft sections of the plywood underlayment will be replaced because of freshwater damage.

Some forward parts of the side underlayment will be replaced as well. The canvas covered forward house is Port Orford cedar ceilinged so it’s in excellent condition. The forward face of the house was cheap mahogany-faced fir plywood and it’s to be replaced with some BS 1088 Okoume plywood I picked up from Edensaw this afternoon.

Total invoice at Edensaw Woods in Kent was $1013.16 for 2 sheets of 18mm Okoume, 4 sheets of 12mm Okoume and 19 board feet of mahogany for the covering boards, kingplank and various bits including the hatch frames. The 18mm mahogany plywood will replace the damaged underlayment on the bow and sides and the 12mm will replace the original mahogany strips. No white caulking for me with it’s associated deck leaks. I replaced the deck on a 1972 Skiff Craft when I lived in Indiana using mahogany plywood sealed in epoxy and varnished with Epifanes and it’s still looking beautiful 12 years later!

Below – September 17, 2009 and I start cutting the new underlayment from the 18mm BS1088 mahogany plywood.

First I lay it all out, then I cut it.

Getting the kingplank and covering board shaped in position.

Below – I take the wood down to the marina and fit it onto the foredeck.

Getting all of the aft pieces fit and the hatch framing cut to size.

Above – Saturday September 18 – Renee and I go down on this rainy Tacoma morning and epoxy the underlayment and hatch framing onto the foredeck.