J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment Too Many Holes

I have untarped the top of my boat and had the mast lifted to the ground so I can rewire it. On Tuesday I was showing a friend the work on the boat and it was raining while we were inside. That showed a couple of leaks I needed to deal with really soon. One more serious leak was under the port rope clutch. I hadn't planned on any work on the deck until the next time the boat was out of the water, but Too Many Holes changed my mind about that, at least for the top rear of the cabin top.

When I pulled the backing plate off from the clutch I was stunned to see not only some serious soggy balsa, but missing glass, missing balsa and a backing plate that had some serious corrosion. This area had become so weak that I think it could have easily failed under load. The starboard side was better. What I think had happened over the years is that these clutches had been moved from one spot to another because under load they would pull hard enough on the structure to elongate the holes and the leaking would begin when the sealant failed. The winches have been moved along with these clutches, so lots of poorly filled holes left behind too.

My brother had given me some scraps of really high density foam material and my plan is to use it underneath the clutches and the winches. I will start by cutting the top of the cabin away and work from above for a change. So I have pieced together the high strength foam with some regular Divinicel, such that the high strength stuff will be directly below these devices. I will also use a fairly heavy layup above this core and then get after the underside once I have something to draw vacuum against. I am not looking forward to fairing this all out, but for sure when I am done this area will not leak and while drilling oversized holes in this material and refilling with CS might be overkill, I am not a fan of leaks on my head when using these births.