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Deck Construction

royaltern

Bert Willett
When I bought Royal Tern and had her surveyed the surveyor mentioned that the cabin top had 9" squares of balsa core separated by 3/8 inch which was filled with epoxy.
He thought this good.as it limits any water migration. In following this board for many years I have never seen any mention of this. Has anyone observed this when they had their headliners down? I never had any problems with a soft deck. Royal Tern was 32 when I sold her.
 
I saw plywood squares also when I took down the headliner in our 1984 38-4. Sunlight can shine through the fiberglass. Didn't measure them, but they were definitely plywood, however.
 
I drilled through for dorado vents on the deck just forward of the companionway. The deck is 5/8" to 3/4" thickness with 3/8" plywood. Here are photos of the slug that came out. 1978 382 Hull #41 IMG_2520.jpgIMG_2521.jpgIMG_2522.jpg
 
I drilled through for dorado vents on the deck just forward of the companionway. The deck is 5/8" to 3/4" thickness with 3/8" plywood. Here are photos of the slug that came out. 1978 382 Hull #41

Wow. That is an interesting layup. It looks like they laid half the squares, Glassed over them, then laid the rest, before the final glass layers.
 
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