J/30 Class Association Forums J/30 Forum The Boat, Sails and Equipment The Inner Demons

I have been finishing up drying and glassing the last four areas on my hull that were under the wooden cradle I used last summer. Three areas have easily air dried out, but the area under the galley sink does not look like it will go so well, but we will find out today when I put some heat to it. This section was so wet you could feel the moisture on the balsa and didn't need the meter to indicate soggy balsa.

But with the skin and resin off I noticed two small black areas. So I excavated the balsa and as I dug in the balsa got blacker and the rotted area actually increased in size. Then I found the prize, Stainless Steel screws that been screwed in from the interior side of the skin. I doubt these screws were the source for all the wet balsa in this area, but they certainly contributed to the problem. The one I found still in place must be pretty well hidden from the topside because when I first saw these things on the interior side I went on a campaign to remove and fill them. It may be on the battery box side of the cabinet, but wherever it is it will have to stay in place.

While the port side of my boat has been the wettest balsa core (other than the exhaust area) it is still unclear to me what the main source of moisture was other than the skin itself. The sink drain area is surrounded by a pretty large solid resin area. Hard to see that as a big source of moisture ingress. But for sure the balsa below this through hull is really wet.

So today we will apply some heat to cook the demons out!

I will also be posting a video soon of the process I have used to expose the balsa, then dry it, replace it and then glass it back up. With 4 separate areas open and in process it was easier to see all the steps.