TOPIC: rot on the sides

I have a 1972 MFG Tri-hull and the plywood underneath the top rails is starting to rot. I'm not quite sure how to even start working on repairing this. Also, the MerControls for my 1970's 50 hp Mercury seem to have a lot of play in the throttle cable. When I shift it into foward, I'm about 90% foward before it starts to throttle up. And the same thing happens in reverse. Is it best to adjust the cables on the the controls side or on the engine side? or a combination of both? Thanks.

Hi Docstark,

Are talking about the plywood up under the gunnels, running around the perimeter of the cockpit? I had some rot in this area before I restored my boat. Not knowing the MFG at all, I would guess that its going to be very hard to get up under there to get the rotted wood out. I had the deck off my boat, so I flipped it over, setting it up on saw horses so I could easily get at this bad wood. I ground out the rotted wood, patched in some filler pieces, then sistered a full length pieces of equal thickness plywood to it using glue and screws. Once this was set up, I soaked all the wood with thinned polyester resin to seal it well. I suppose you could do that without pulling the deck off, but it will be hard.

Dean

Thanks Dean.
The plywood under the gunnels is exactly what im talking about. Thanks again, and we'll see how it goes.

doc

Good luck Doc,

The repairs are not hard, only the access will be the challenge. What I did when I sistered the new plywood over the old, was that after I glued/screwed it into place... I put several layers of 4" wide fiberglass/resin between the underside of the deck and the new wood, to make it real solid and seal up the plywood.

Dean