Has anyone sunk from deck delamination?

[Creedence]

I’m not trying to be pedantic, but does anyone actually know of someone whose boat sank from a weak, delaminated deck?

My maintenance bible for 15 years has been the Don Casey series of books, and he REALLY dislikes moisture in cored decks. The repair approach is extraordinarily invasive. I’m not deliberating this for my purposes, but I do feel compelled to have the discussion. I don’t know, nor do I recall hearing about anyone who suffered a catastrophic loss due to a delaminated deck.

As this challenges accepted wisdom, I’ll close by waving my underwear at everyone as a peace offering. I’m just looking for an enlightening discussion.

[CassidyNZ]

There is a recorded event near NZ where a boat was lost due to largish windows popping out. Since the boat was irretrievably lost, it hasn’t been determined that the windows popped out due to some structural malfunction.

Was it a localised delamination? Who knows?

[a64pilot]

Probably won’t sink, not until the deck falls in and the boat fills with rain water, but it’s like Cancer, it’s going to get worse and it is fatal to a boat, have to cut it out, or let the boat die.

[JPA Cate]

The loss of the Rebel Heart was at least partly due to inadequate repair of a plywood cored old Hans Christian. Iirc, it was the starboard quarter deck, and the leak that followed damaged their HF radio. It may have been the first one built, a prototype, iirc. However, some Taiwan built boats had a lot of problems with quality control in the build.

As to the loss of the Rebel Heart, there were other problems, too, leading to abandonment of the boat; however, there was some doubt that she would have stayed together for the rest of the trip to the Marquesas. I'm sure if you do a CF Custom Google Search on the boat name, you'll be able to read what was expressed at the time.

There have been boats who've left their races with hull delamination, but I guess that doesn't fall within your deck delamination concept.

Ann

[Bill O]

Only one's that I've ever seen are the ones that have "sunk" on land due to a leaky deck and neglect.

It's always a shame to let a boat go down that way.

[Don C L]

I've never heard of it, but I don't hear everything. My boat has a bit of delamination in its plywood core deck, but the glass is thick enough I am pretty sure I can bounce around on it for another 60 years and it won't cause her to sink. I ignore it.

[Creedence]

Cool responses so far, thanks. Keep em coming.

I am fighting the good fight in my new (to me) Taiwanese boat. I re-bed all the deck prisms yesterday, I’ll tackle the hatches next. When I did the deck prisms, it was obvious water had intruded some time ago and got to the plywood in at least some areas. It was dry, but the plywood was definitely compromised.

I injected as much thickened epoxy I to it as it would take, then sealed the holes in the deck off with it before reinstalling the prisms.

During the survey, the moisture meter readings were all very low, but I’m sure I’ll want to contend with sins of the past someday.

I’ll certainly hunt that Hans Christian story down, that’s very applicable to me as mine came out of the Formosa yard.

With all that said about MY boat, I am enjoying the broader thematic discussion. I’ll tend to the maintenance of mine as needed, but the broader discussion is really interesting to me.

[smj]

All it would take would be that one breaking wave impacting your deck.....but what are the chances of that?

[Mike OReilly]

I suppose a boat's deck could collapse under the weight of a big crashing wave. A weakened deck would make this more likely, but by how much only specific circumstance would dictate. I haven't heard about any boats being stove in this way, but I imagine it could happen.

A rolled boat would also be more at risk if it had a weakened deck, but again, in these circumstances bad things are already happening to good boats. Whether a weakened deck would be the final straw must be highly circumstantial.

I too wonder if people over-worry about moist decks. I probably wonder this because I too have a leaky-teaky with some water intrusion. I keep examining the deck for any sign of structural weakness, but have never found any. But I know it's not good, and will get worse.

Still, I too wonder if the the cure (or repair) may be worse than the disease.

[barnakiel]

I have never seen anything beyond the deck becoming soft and making that horrible sound as someone walks overhead. Argh. Horrible.



I can imagine that with some designs (e.g. extensive flushdeck without beams, etc.) and a thin skin racing design, a boat could be physically endangered (in bad seas only, I think).


So, in my opinion, a soft deck needs fixing but it does not sink an otherwise well built cruising grade boat.


b.

[Fore and Aft]

Rob Mundle wrote a book called "Fatal Storm" and in it is a picture from the yacht Stand Aside which has a missing cabin roof from when they capsized. Not sure what happened to the yacht after the crew was rescued?
Cheers
https://www.9news.com.au/national/sy...2-a6b68dd62dd9

[Bycrick]

I had a Formosa 37' once and helped two other people with various 41’ boats fix delaminated decks. I could easily imagine all kinds of horror stories about lifeline stanchion bases, cleats, windlass, etc pulling out of a compromised deck. But the three boats I worked on all fixed the deck because the boats leaked like a sieve when it rained.

[JPA Cate]

@Mike OReilly,

Our friends with a T37 like yours contended with leaky decks for years. When they got into removing the teak and investigating all round, they found 3 places with progressed rot. It has been an over 18 months long job, and they are not yet done. This is one case of deferred maintenance making the job far more difficult. I hope your situation is better.

Ann

[coopec43]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I suppose a boat's deck could collapse under the weight of a big crashing wave. A weakened deck would make this more likely, but by how much only specific circumstance would dictate. I haven't heard about any boats being stove in this way, but I imagine it could happen.

I'm sure you are right.

How would you like to being hit by a big crashing wave like this if the deck was a bit dodgy?

On 11 March 1861 at midday the lighthouse on Eagle Island,[4] off the west coast of Ireland was struck by a large wave that smashed 23 panes, washing some of the lamps down the stairs and damaging beyond repair the reflectors with broken glass. In order to damage the uppermost portion of the lighthouse, water would have had to surmount a seaside cliff measuring 40 m (133 ft) and a further 26 m (87 ft) of lighthouse structure.

[coopec43]

Has someone already posted the links? (Several links have been pulled down)

https://www.charlottekaufman.com/blo...lessonslearned

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/08/u...parenting.html