Deck Joint Continued, again

[rfrance0718]

On Wednesday I pulled the rub rail off of the port side of the Oday for the 3rd time. The 1st time,a year and a half ago,  I removed the fasteners and the sealant holding the deck and hull together. I then replaced the sealant, and screwed it all back together.  Last summer I started with no leaks, but I started to get some seepage as the year went on. This year the seepage worsened, and I pulled the rub rail off again about a month ago. This time I made sure that all of the screws were biting, and that all were sealed. Afterwards my leaks were worse than ever! The biggest problem happened to be in the head, and close to the stanchion bases. The floor of the head is a basin without a drain, so pooling there would confirm the problem.

This time, I was thinking of through bolting the hull/deck screws when I finally discovered what the real issue is. I've attached the factory drawing of the joint cross section. You can see that the screws are supposed to pass through the deck flange and hull, and are supposed to bite into a built-up strip. The built-up strip is a wood band that is glassed to the inside of the hull at the very top edge.
When I looked into through bolting I realized that my built-up strip was way lower than the drawing shows. If I tried to through bolt it, I wouldn't have a flat backing for the washers and nuts because the bolts, or the screws, would pass through the edge of the built up strip or miss it altogether. All of my existing screws were either barely biting at the top of the strip, not realling biting firmly because they were passing through the upper edge of the strip, or missing the built up strip altogether.
This had left many placed where the screws were working loose and allowing water to pass through. It was the worst around the stanchions. The factory drawing show the cross section where there is toerail. At the stanchions, the toerail is abbreviated, and there is a built up square under the deck. At those four spots there is not enough space for the built-up strip to fit behind. It almost seems like they added the built-up strip after the deck was in place. It seems that they should have abbreviated the built-up strip at these spots but instead of cutting it they just let it dip down to pass underneath.
I'm figuring that drugs and temporary workers were involved. The boat was built at the end of the Oday corps run and I shouldn't be surprised by shotty workmanship.


I've tried to seal the screws that are giving me issues right now, and I'm good for the rest of season. I think that the final repair will be a matter of cutting thin strips of matt and glassing them in above the wayward strip. That would give me some meat to screw into and allow for some through bolting in the crucial areas.
Pictures include drawing from the original manual,  picture of the strip from the inside with my index finger showing the top of the strip and holes above where I removed the screws, the deck flange where the builders tried to screw it together at the very bottom, in hopes of catching the backing strip, and my drawings and explanations.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.You cannot view this attachment.

[rfrance0718]

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[Doug SC]

That is really shoddy work they left the boat with. That's something to be aware of when buying an Oday. I would suppose the older boats were better built. I understand if you are pissed. Hope the repair isn't too difficult.

[rfrance0718]

Maybe not pissed, but certainly disappointed. I kind of feel sorry for their ending. Once proud company and all. I think that laying in some glass will be easy enough. Then I'll probably through bolt some of it, maybe every third one in the middle sections.