340 Windlass core rot repair complete!! Pics and details along the way.

NJMatt50

Member
Apr 28, 2009
225
Jersey Shore
Boat Info
2005 Sundancer 420. Sea lift platform, Axiom Pro, FLIR.
Engines
Cummins 480ce
I Found that the windlass was loose at the top deck of my 340. After further inspection I found that the reason this was the case was due to water intrusion around the windlass and foot switches. I was going over options and decided to tackle this myself and with the help of a buddy of mine. I have taken pics along the way to show what we did. Be sure to re-bed your hardware ever so often!

Area thought to be rotted upon inspection.







Starting to cut using the fein tool -
notice we made the cut between the anchor bow rail and cleat. This way it will bolt back together later.





Surprise! -
This looks really bad. It looks worse than it is. There was no wood left around the foot switches.





Cleaned up -All the rot is cleaned out. Also made a lip about 1.5 inches under the existing deck.





Wood added - 3/8" Best outdoor Home Depot ply added to anchor area. This was thicker than the area by the foot switches to support the windlass load. I keyed the wood under the existing area dug out on the sides. The wood was epoxied down using West Systems product.




Windlass plywood
- 1/2" Marine ply added on windlass side. Again note that this is keyed past where the bow rail and cleat are bolted up. This will make for everything to be bolted together when complete. The bottom corner was tucked in as well for support. Also made some holes in the wood for the epoxy to flow down a level.




Foot switch side wood
- Another 1/2 piece of wood was added and keyed under the existing lip. This could not be "tucked" under the lip with 1 piece. Therefore this had to be done in 2 and fiberglassed in between.






Top Deck replaced -
Once this all was dry we then were able to fit the top back flush with the rest of the deck. A little sanding was needed to make a proper fit. This was super strong after that West System epoxy dried up.





Template made -
So instead of dealing with the seams of the top deck I decided to go with synthetic teak. I made a template from cardboard of exactly what I wanted. Sent it to TT Custom Marine.





Holes drilled and sealed up -
Before I glued the teak down I drilled most of the holes and used 4200 sealant around the areas prone to water intrusion.





Complete!!! -
All hardware installed and sealed up. I think the teak makes for a good look.



All in all this took a few weekends. Was a good deal of work. Finally can use my windlass again.
 
Last edited:
Damn that looks amazing!! Great job man!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Looks nice and great job! I'm doing the same thing right now. Only difference is that I chose to tackle this from below by cutting out the underside via standing on my head through the anchor locker hatch. I started doing it that way and then later decided to add the fake teak. Wish I would have decided to do the fake teak earlier - trust me when I tell you (and for anyone reading this and thinking of doing something similar) it would have been MUCH, MUCH, MUCH easier to cut the top deck off. FYI, that first sheet of 3/8" plywood doesn't look like marine ply (shouldn't have any knots). But, as long as you didn't use PT ply, it really shouldn't matter since everything is encapsulated in epoxy. The 4200 is more than sufficient, but for future reference, drill your holes out larger than needed, fill with epoxy and then redrill the right size - this will encapsulate the hole sides with epoxy, too. BUT, nice job!
 
Very interesting. Good work.
 
Awesome work. Had to do the same thing with a spot on my cockpit deck. Its stronger than ever now. That's one area you will not need to worry about again.
 
Looks fantastic, top work.

You say it took several weekends, was this all day both days, or a bit one day, let stuff cure and back the next?
 
Well as far as the times goes. I believe 1 day cut it off, cleaned and epoxied in the first lower 3/8. Let that cure a week, came back the following Sat or Sun added the 2 top wood pieces, next weekend stuck the top layer on. Couple weekends later I made the template, that took like couple hrs to do it correctly. another few hrs to glue the teak in place. Another few hrs to bed all that hardware back in place. I was only working on it 1 day a week. I think I am prob in to this for 25 - 30 hrs.
 
Wow. One of my foot switch covers broke last season. This winter I replaced them and found they weren't sealed in place AT ALL. This would have been my fate...

Mike
 
How did you find out you had rot?
 
Found that the windlass was loose back and forth. Tried to tighten it and it was compressing the cores together. You can also tap the top deck with something solid and hear the differences between a soft core and solid core.
 
Is picture #4 what is left after you took the bad wood out? So that means the wood is sandwiched in between two layers of fiberglass?
 
Yes, that is was the bottom layer of fiberglass. The plywood was the "core" between the top skin and bottom skin. Plywood was used there for the anchor support. The bottom layer of fiber is flimsy, not too thick. Top layer was stiff. The other parts of the top deck have balsa wood as the core.
 
How did you keep the repaired area from being its own component structurally independent from the rest of the boat? From the pictures it seems like the only continuity to the rest of the boat is the bonding of the plywood to the thin under layer of fiberglass. What did you do to keep a good hard tug on the anchor from pulling that whole repair section right out?
 
How did you keep the repaired area from being its own component structurally independent from the rest of the boat? From the pictures it seems like the only continuity to the rest of the boat is the bonding of the plywood to the thin under layer of fiberglass. What did you do to keep a good hard tug on the anchor from pulling that whole repair section right out?


I don't think its completely independent of the rest of the structure. The new wood is well bonded to the fiberglass, which itself is bonded to the other wood on the deck. Point is that while not as integrated as original, I think it would be somewhat structural given the layers of bonding agent used. I'm not sure how to really make this type of repair 100% attached to the rest of the decking as we talking about butted sheets of plywood?? Good question though..
 
I don't think its completely independent of the rest of the structure. The new wood is well bonded to the fiberglass, which itself is bonded to the other wood on the deck. Point is that while not as integrated as original, I think it would be somewhat structural given the layers of bonding agent used. I'm not sure how to really make this type of repair 100% attached to the rest of the decking as we talking about butted sheets of plywood?? Good question though..
We are all supposed to wrap our rode around the cleat to take the force off the windlass motor. So the cleat is the key component. The cut is to the left of the cleat, so the cleat is sitting on top of the original full fiberglass bow topdeck. But it looks like there is enough of the old wood cut away under the cleat so that new wood is under the cleats mounting holes.

Edit: So the more I look at the pics I finally figured out that the new plywood extends 1.5" under the existing topdeck and is bonded to the underside of the existing topdeck with epoxy all the way around. Plus you have 4 bolts for the rode channel and cleat adding more securing. This should keep it solidly in place when walking or jumping on it - so you don't push through the repair, as well as when pulling up on the cleat.

I think this job is fabulous and I have no criticisms. Just trying to learn about the logic that went into the repair to ensure it would still hold when anchored or walking/jumping on it.
 
Last edited:
that looks great going to do the same job on my 330 express soon the foot switches and windlass have soft spots:smt089
 

Forum statistics

Threads
112,950
Messages
1,422,860
Members
60,932
Latest member
juliediane
Back
Top