Removing the deck
The first step in restoring our Flying Dutchman sailboat was to remove the deck. I began by cutting away a small section of the fibre glass to check the extent of the damage. Since this will be the second time that the deck has been replaced on this boat, I disovered two types of wood... the original deck wood (which I could poke my finger through) and the newer wood from the last repair job. The new wood was still strong and not damaged at all.
In spite of finding some good wood, I decided to still replace the full deck because of a bigger problem. The deck was separating from the hull. My decision was confirmed to be the right one once I started pulling the deck off. A simple knife around the edge of the hull and the whole deck peeled off! There was definately not a lot of strength left in that bond.
I then cleaned up the edge of the hull using a power sander... being very careful to not actually hit the original fibre glass. This left a nice surface for me to attach the new bumper that I built. (I am not sure if it is really called a bumper but that is what I call it. I am referring to the rounded edge that protects the hull from side impacts)
To the side of the above picture you can see the old deck. This shows off all the supports that keep the deck in its nice curved shape. I now have a huge job of rebuilding all of those supports so that the new deck is just as strong (hopefully stronger) than the old deck.
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