DaySailer.org Forum

Hey everyone!!! I picked up a '66 oday ds1 and will be restoring it but for now i just want to make it sea worthy. I noticed that on both port and starboard sides the bond broke that holds the cap to the hull. Its on both sides and loose for about 8 from the aft forward.

I have no intentions of ever removing the cap so i was wondering if its a good idea to just glass from the inside on both sides???? It doesnt appear to be seperating anywear else.

Thanks rob

Thats 8 inches from the stern forward

Welcome to the forum!

So you have '66 DS 1 and from the transom up to 8" forward of the transom the deck and hull have separated?

I assume with your term "cap" you mean the rear deck of the DS1?

I see no reason why you can't glass over the inside of the hull-deck joint. You are correct, there's really no need to take the deck off and on some boats, including mine, various owners have glassed over that joint in places.

Because it's a secondary bond (bonding to already cured material) you're best off using epoxy (a good laminating epoxy from West System or SystemThree for example). It might help to lay up 2-3 layers of mat and fabric on a sheet of plastic foil and then transfer that to the place where you want to bond it (peeling the plastic off after the epoxy has cured). Instead of trying to do the lay-up in place...

Aside from that, the location is a curious one for hull-deck joint failure. I would try to discern a possible cause - if it was just a badly done joint in the factory, that's one thing, but if there was some violent cause, you might have a bit of soft or damaged laminate in the vicinity. I would definitely inspect the surrounding laminate before proceeding.

You may need to reinforce a slightly larger section than merely the separation.

You can see in the pic where its seperating. After looking underneath the stern appears to be glassed and it looks factory . Just on the sides it looks like the bonding agent released( it looks like a 5200 type adhesive) Its stops right where the tabs start for the bumper. I will clean it up and the the west systems epoxy and glass it up as you described.

There doesnt appear to be any weakness around the area it just looke like a clean break from the bonding agent.

Looks like there's something missing as well, the joint should extend outward and supply a base for the rub-rail.

Glassing the joint from the inside should fix the immediate structural problem, later you can figure out how to replace the rubrail.

After closer inspection i see what you mean about the tabs missing. Not sure why they were removed but i glassed the inside and it seems pretty solid now. Thx

If you ever tie up to a dock, you'll want complete set of rubrails again - you can purchase the plastic channel and the rubrail material, and you'll be able to somehow rig something to fit the last few inches of channel, I'm sure. If you are sailing where there are no docks, you may never miss those pieces.