"DSK" wrote in message
. ..
Maxprop wrote:

Questions:

I have an old Laser which has a hull/deck flange. The bond is lost along
quite a bit of the flange.

Do you mean that the the flange is damaged, big chunks torn out of it, or
that the area of the bond between layers is gone soft & cheesy?

The deck and the hull have simply separated at the flange.


.... It appears that someone attempted to rebond it with epoxy at one
time, but unsuccessfully.


It was probably considered successful, at least for a while.

A pretty sloppy job, actually. Lots of epoxy where it doesn't belong--I've
removed it already, and the epoxy failed to bond the deck and hull at the
flange.


My questions are these: 1) Since polyurethane adhesive, such as 3M 5200,
is often used as a hull-to-deck bonding agent on larger boats, wouldn't
polyurethane be suitable for a smaller boat, too?

Yes. A lot of people like Sikaflex better.

Isn't that polysulfide? Or do they make a polyurethane, too?

.... 2) The space between the two shells along the flange is too narrow
to get something as thick as 5200 to flow into it. Since Gorilla Glue is
a polyurethane adhesive, any reason it wouldn't work as well? It would
flow nicely into the space and it expands when it cures, which would fill
the space nicely.

Any opinions or experience with Gorilla?


I haven't used Gorilla Glue much, and IMHO it isn't really very strong (so
I don't plan to use it in the future). It does not fill gaps very well
either (again IMHO), seems to foam up.

The best way to repair a hull/deck joint is to seperate them and re-attach
them along the full length. Yes it's a PITA. But if you need a project for
a long winter, it's great. At some point along the way, you'll be telling
yourself 'it'd be easier to just build a d^%% boat from scratch' which
tells you you're on the right track.

The hull/deck bond is just solid enough in enough places as to render this
not an option. Some serious cutting would be required, which I have neither
the time nor the stomach for. I'd like to just rebond the flange where it
is separated. This is an "old" Laser, the racing career of which is long
over. I'd like to give it to the kids of some friends for them to learn how
to sail. But it won't hold up well if I can't fix the unbonded areas.

Max