Morgan 27 Floor

[odpuskas123]

Hey, I have a Morgan 27, and I was wondering if anyone can send some photos or explain what it should look like under the flooring?

I lifted my flooring panels to clear some water that went under them, and found some stuff that I am not sure about. It looks like there is more wood with fiber glass on top of it in some places. I was wondering if that is the way it is supposed to be or if someone did that to fix some problem they had? It looks wrong, especially since it is easier for that wood to rot, but I am pretty knew to this, so I am not sure. The plywood under the fiberglass is all rotted and falling apart because water got under the fiberglass, so I am going to be taking it all out, but I want to know the right way to put it back together.

I got some photos of it and have attached them.

You can see where the wood starts to blend with the fiber glass. There are some spots of white paint on the wood to the left, and the white strip on the right side is the fiber glass.
I started taking out the really rotted wood that basically fell apart in my hands.

Any help is appreciated, thanks, Oden

[Spot]

Oden, welcome to CF.

You may want to search the interwebs for 'Morgan 27 cabin sole' to see what other have done.

How does the mast step/base look?

[TrentePieds]

Hm... You got some work ahead of you, but if you are handy and willing to put in the hard work, you'll probably be okay :-)

First job is to lean out ALL the loose *****, first by hand, then by using a shop-vac.

My reading of your photos is that the keel-bolts, the top of which you can see, are too shiny to be original, i.e. the keel has been off the boat at some point, quite recently, either deliberately or through having run the keel onto a rock and broken it loose on the hull. The damage to the wood is consistent with the latter because the bilge would have filled with water.

This keel is NOT integral to the hull. It a "bolt-on", so even if it turns out that there is damage to the hull itself, it's repairable. At a cost yet to be determined. You need to weigh the anticipated cost of repairs against the cost of destruction of the boat and disposal of the detritus if you scrap her, because under Canadian law, at least, as the legal owner of the boat you'll be responsible for those costs.

On the surface of it, that calculation would come out in favour of repairing the boat, certainly so if you can do it yourself. Which at this point I'm pretty sure you can :-)!

Did you buy this boat fairly recently? Do you have boating experience? Where are you located? Is the boat in the water or on the dry? The answers to those questions will speak to how to approach the repairs you have before you!

Because the hull is GRP, it's repairable, and in your photos it appears that the hull itself is still sound. We'll get a better idea if you clean out the ***** and post photos taken once the bilge is emptied of debris and vacuum-cleaned out.

Screw up you courage and have at it. We can walk you through it :-)!

TrentePieds