This boat had just been refitted with a new teak deck six months earlier and had sailed from Sweden to Portugal with increasing amounts of water entering the accommodation. Close examination revealed a number of defects.
Deck scuppers fitted by HR are usually good quality, bronze top hat type fittings. These had been ground off at the top during lifting the old teak deck and refitted using sealant. A visible source of water entry
The new teak deck had been screwed down which is an unusual method as many shipwrights would now use glue.
Some screw holes had been drilled oversize and filled with sealant without bothering to shape a teak plug. Some plugs were missing and some were loose.
Chain plate deck fittings were not square to the deck and the raised edges were filled with sealant. Some screws could not be tightened down and sealant had been used to make up for the lack of thread.
The same defect was also evident on the filler caps.
The mast is deck stepped and the foot was bent out of shape and sat unevenly on the teak deck. Sealant was used to fill the raised edges and two screws were actually loose.
There were cracks in some planks, the grain orientation showed that poor quality teak had been used, the caulking width was not always even, planks were not always square cut and the sealant on to the coach roof had come away from the fibre glass.
A decision was taken to remove the teak deck. It was found to be poorly bonded to the deck and the deck had been poorly prepared to take a new teak deck. The moisture readings were high and the yacht had to be tented and dried out using dehumidifiers and hot vacs.
After drying core samples were taken and the deck repaired using epoxy resin filler. The screw holes were drilled out oversize and with so many screw holes both from the original and recent teak deck there was a lot of painstaking filling to do.
A new teak
deck was laid using glue with just a few screws to enable fixing which were later removed.
