Hi,
Just had a part good days sailing, managed a good place in then first race but couldn’t start Race 2 as the under deck genoa track support, anothner piece of untreated wood collapsed so that we were unable to sheet the genoa in to sail to windward. When on shore and able to examine the situation the plywood to which the track is bolted with two stainless bolts with rusty ordinary steel washers under the head had disintegrated and was rotten. Looking at the other side showed that this piece of ply had also gone rotten and the track was holding on with a small piece of glass fibre. A photo of the tracks and the rotten plywood is attached.
This is a very difficult part of the boat to get at!! My only idea for a repair is to clear out as much of the old plywood as possible, cut a new pies of ply which will be coated with epoxy resin to seal it, then to fit the new ply and the track to the underside of the deck by bolting through the deck with a pair of long counter sunk headed bolts or possibly pan headed with a large washer to spread the loads.
i would like to hear from any other owners of Speed boats who have experienced problems with rotten plywood problems and how they have solved the problems. If you don’t want to make an open reply email me at scorbet@btinternet.com.
Thanks Steve