There is a small crack at the rear of the keel where it meets the hull, but to look at it I would think it was only in the filler. Maybe I need to seriously excavate that thing and see what is happening.
The surveyor said that simply applying the vacuum was adequate to "boil" the water at ambient temperatures and that adding some heat just helped. For sure I can see how actual hot water would not only delaminate, but likely degrade the balsa itself. This is a tempting approach, but to make it works requires a fair bit of setup and patience vs. just getting it done.
Scott, how big were each of the sections that you opened up? Meaning were you cutting open 12" x 12" or ? I was thinking that something like 6" x 36" would be manageable and allow the new foam strip to easily conform to the compound curves. I was thinking to use a 1/4" ply backer, with some attached blocks to stand the strap off and covered with HDPE and then use rachcet straps fully around the boat to compress the new structure.
