Deck Hull joint integrity ?

[bearmcnally]

Hello Topi

You Have a Mk 1 I agree with Phil yours is a Formit Hull ,nothing wrong with a Formit hull : I know Egret II is a Baker hull 1972 with a amateur fitout and launched 1973 .She has no stringers glassed in along the hull . What gives her strength is the plywood stringers /bulkheads that run forward to aft and are glassed in, which also form the support for the bunks .So you have your forepeak bulkhead glassed in ,then your main bulkhead glassed in. And in between them you'll have the plywood stringers glassed in between the two bulkheads. Then on the other side of the main bulkhead the plywood stringers continue back and finish just under the start of the cockpit . The bonding of the hull to the deck is done by sticking /gluing the two together and then glassing the hull and deck together with fibreglass . The toerail is only to protect the hull from knocks and to make it look pretty.

Bear

[Topi]

Amateur Fit Out - look like that is the scenario. There are a few things that are a bit rough on the finish of the vessel, not what I would expect from a pro doing it.

So a Mark 1 that took a while to complete in someone's back yard and launched in 1976

[Phillip]

Topi,

She was probably completed in the water to reduce costs, as that's why the original owner did the fitout him/herself.

[Topi]

So here is another question relating to the hull / deck join, or toe rail. Is the toe rail lip, in fact made up of two halves - one the hull the other the deck ?

In my case the top of the toe rail does not have that nice SS cap. There are cracks visible in the toe rail laminate/s from above where water must make some ingress over time.

One of those SS caps would be nice, but no doubt it would be hard to come by, anyone seen other things used to help seal that lip ? Aready made moulding would be nice.

[Phillip]

Louis,

You will have to fill all those cracks with resin.
But first you had better check that the join inside is in good condition.
That means it's not delaminating or leaking water. If you find either of these you will need to repair it.
Make sure there is no water in the joints before filling with resin.

You may need to wrap [with a fiberglass strip] the top of the toe rail to effect a seal.

The SS cover was hand made, I'll measure the thickness/width tomorrow for you.
It is fixed with roved over bronze rod.

[bornfreee]

I know of 2 Mrk1 tophats that cracked in the side bow areas from to much flexing one was my Formit built one Calypso and the other was Jamies one one his way to Lord Howe not sure who built his he fixed his by glassing in a big foam pad to each side of the bow.Even my Endeaver 24 had ribs glassed down each side of the hull it is a big area of glass which will flex when beating hard with out ribs

[Aaron]

Jamie the mad bugger used duck tape to come back home and it fel off about half way and was on the bilge pump every 10 minutes!!
My hull and deck on my mark 2 is glassed heavily under the side decks to the hull and is strong as buggery! The gunwale lip was finished pretty well, that i took off the outdated rooted teak rails and filled the holes from screws and the odd hole with bog and sanded and painted it. Looks great!
You don't needs a toe rail if you don't hit anything

Dawn Breaker
Mk 2

[Topi]

The SS cover was hand made, I'll measure the thickness/width tomorrow for you.
It is fixed with roved over bronze rod.

There is hope for me yet, that sounds like a solution. I thought those SS caps were factory made with a rolling machine.

The glassing under/inside looks fine, no signs of issues there. Perhaps the top of the timber toe rail originaly covered the GRP, but now that the previous owner removed it the problem has began to show itself. Getting some resin in there makes sense, probably just before I put the screws back in that pintch it together.

Just dont like looking at cracks, in anything

[Phillip]

Topi,

The SS cover strip on the Mark 1's appears to be made out of sheet Stainless Steel.

You will need SS sheet that is 0.9mm thick [a little bit thicker than 1/32". 0.11mm extra to be exact]
Or what ever close thickness they do today, but not heavier.

The lenghts cut are around 6' 0" [1850mm] long. width of a sheet? And 2" [50mm] wide.
A sheet metal shop should be able to pre-bend them for you in the U shape.

Originally these were fixed in place by roved over 5mm SS [or maybe bronze] rod, about every 2- 300mm,
but today it may be easier to fix with nuts & bolts.

Mk1-Toe-Rail.jpg (75.61 KiB) Viewed 5012 times

Mk-1-Toe-Rail-Joint.jpg (105.06 KiB) Viewed 5012 times

Hope that answers your question.

[storm petrel]

Or could you could look for a ready made aluminium extrusion. I am sure simple U- channel would be available.