I highly recommend you stick with vinylester resin. The Epoxy shrinks over time and you will be left with wet core again and redoing the job. Fill all holes you are no longer using. Anywhere you will be having a fastener, I recommend you get G10 tube with the inside diameter the size of the fastener. You will have to overdrill the hole from below, leaving the top layer of fiberglass in place. Glue the tube in place and make flush below. Then cut out a G10 plate as a backing plate underneath. This method you will never crush the deck and any water that gets between the fastener and the G10 tube will make its way into the boat, and not into the core. Of course, I always use 4200 when installing the fasteners, so in theory there shouldn't be any water getting in, but some always does.

As for the non-skid, you need to be very talented to do a top notch job. I sanded my deck down and have Rufus spraying an entire new deck on the boat right now.

Cheers, Jason

:: Hi All,
::
:: I've started fixing my very soft deck on hull #10 and
:: could use some advice.
::
:: I've removed all the hardware and started to drill out
:: existing holes to ensure there's good clean core at each
:: hole. Any hole exhibiting rot I've removed the top skin
:: until good balsa was found and squared off the repair
:: area. I'll be wetting and re-laying 1/2" Contourkore in
:: these areas. Which resin should I use? The boat was
:: originally built with vinylester, however at this stage
:: in the game it's no longer a chemical bond, so is west
:: system ok? The shelf life of vinylester and the fact
:: that I've worked with west before has me leaning that
:: way.
::
:: For smallish holes, about a 1/2in I was thinking of
:: wetting balsa dowels in resin and filling the hole with
:: the dowel to reduce the amount of resin used. Dishing
:: out around the hole with the grinder and laying in
:: either chop strand mat with vinylester or 1708 with
:: epoxy. The smallest holes will just be filled with
:: epoxy, possibly dished out with the grinder and
:: laminated depending on size.
::
:: I've also got some delamination happening on the rear
:: bulkhead in the cockpit. I think it was Brendan who said
:: this was a common problem amongst the older boats, as
:: the later boats had additional support under the
:: cockpit. Does anyone have pictures of the supports? For
:: this I was planning on adding the additional support
:: under the cockpit, grinding off the glass that connects
:: the bulkhead to the deck, and adding new material.
:: Again, not sure which type of glass should be used for
:: this repair. For now I've just wedged a 2x4 under the
:: cockpit to reduce the chance of further damage.
::
:: The boat needs an entirely new non-skid and paint job.
:: I'm leaning towards just hiring someone to do that as I
:: don't really have the space required to spray.
::
:: Thanks in advance, any advice would be greatly
:: appreciated.