Deck flexing

[RichardK]

I have bought an 8M recently and noticed quite a lot of flex in the deck forward of the hatchches on the outriggers, it is only in this place and there is no obvious sign of damage, what are other peoples experience of the decks and how much they flex?

[Hull52]

The decks are notorious for delaminating, particularly near any deck plate or hatch.

[RichardK]

Is this a simple epoxy repair usually or a deck off?
I have flex but no visible damage

[Hull52]

I just repaired the delaminated portions by drilling and filling with West/404. My damage was localized around the original access ports. I replaced them all with new ports. I have pictures somewhere. I'll see if I can dig them up.

If you can easily get an access port out to look at the sandwich layer under the deck you should be able to see if the honeycomb is damaged. If it's not, you can strengthen the decks from underneath with strategically placed halved PVC sections bonded with cloth and West Epoxy. Joe S the resident 8 meter expert can let you know how normal flexy decks are on that model. Generally though, I think all of the early boats suffer from this issue.

[JoeS.]

RichardK, congratulations on your 'new' Telstar 8M and welcome to the forum.

You didn't mention where you are or which year/country 8M you own. If it is one of the nine built in the US before the factory burnt down, the ama underdecks are not a sandwich but are simply fiberglass reinforced with three large-diameter longitudinal PVC half-tubes glassed into place. I just went outside in my pajamas and clambered up onto my 8M (#256) that's sitting opened up on its trailer and I detected no squishiness in the deck anywhere on the outer hulls. This is a boat that hasn't been used in 20 years (but almost ready to re-launch...).

If your construction is similar to mine, what you might do is either crawl down inside or even just stick you head down and look up and have someone walk on the area which feels squishy and see if there is any delamination of that glass holding the pvc halfpipe in place. Quick and dirty attempt to fix it would simply be to heavily rough up the surface and epoxy some cloth over it. Even if you do nothing I wouldn't worry about it too much, as the outer deck area doesn't experience much traffic and if you're getting on/off the boat you can simply avoid the flexing area.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes.

[RichardK]

JoeS

I believe I have one of the last ones made here in the UK, it was built in 1980 #207, mine has the same deck construction as yours, no sign of actual damage, to me it is like single layer corrugated cardboard (one corrugated layer and a single flat one - it needs the second flat layer to provide the extra 2 dimensional stiffness and yes probably your idea should do the trick.
I don't fancy the 'avoid' option as it would mean me having to explain to folks to avoid an area of deck - not really going to fill them with confidence


I have found that roofers use pre-made GRP forms ideal for this, with flat flanges to provide great contact it should be cheap and easy to run a few ribs in the other direction

I am new to Telstars; and am trying to find out more - do you know the actual weight of an 8M, the height of the mast and any other technical specs?

best regards

Richard

[JoeS.]

GRP pre-made forms sound great! Let us know how they turn out (with photos).

For Telstar info, you might peruse http://www.telstarowners.net/bb/viewforum.php?f=24