While doing the repairs to Imagine after our two night time encounters, I noticed that one part of the deck flexed as I stood on it. YES I have put on weight. NO it wasn’t that! After seeing this problem on other boats I knew what had to be done.
So I proceeded to cut the deck open. Sure enough it was rotten. A year ago I had cut out part of the rub rail that was rotten right next to the piece of deck I’ve just found. My guess is that water had been tracking up the bolt holding the rub rail on and I hadn’t noticed it.
I cut the deck back as far as hard dry wood then back as far as a rib (for strength). Luckily the timber around the chain plates was still ok. I Inserted new plywood and coating with fibreglass. I then primed and painted it with the little bit of KiwiGrip we still had (courtesy of Alan Thrower).
That has now created a bigger problem. The new paint looks great, but it shows that the rest of the deck now needs painting.
