New to me 1986 290 ( Soft Bow)

[farnz1611]

So i'm starting a new thread for my new to me 1986 290 xf.  I had posted a few questions in the owners group forum prior to purchasing and your answers were extremely helpful.  Now that the boat is mine, the real fun begins.  So everything is pretty good looking on her except for the bow.  Under the windlass and out about 2 feet or so is super soft.  I haven't drilled into it yet but  i'm guessing all i will find is gross watery wood.  I don't have any pictures of the soft spot yet, but i will add some tonight.
    Long story short I am looking for some opinions on how to fix it.  I am leaning towards drilling small holes and filling with an epoxy.   I have rebuilt floors on boats before, but never used this method.  Any thoughts/tips?

[RickK]

Yeah you won't know until you do some exploring with a drill.  Congrats on the new boat.
BTW, when you take pics with a phone, hold the phone horizontal with the camera to the left. I rotated everything that needed it in your gallery.

[mshugg]

When you say bow, you’re really talking about the underside of the pulpit?  Right?  I think these builds have the top of the pulpit mounded as part of the cap/liner, and the underside is just a piece of marine ply encapsulated in glass.  If the soft part is the underside of the pulpit, it should be an easy ( relatively easy) fix.

[wingtime]

I repaired the floors in my 170 using the epoxy injection method. So far it has held up great. However I'd consider the area around a windlass and pulpit as a much more structural area than a floor.

[farnz1611]

Yea.  I saw your 170 rebuild and really liked the way it came out.  I am definitely going to have a backing plate made up to go underneath the deck were the windlass mounts on to it.  Now im just trying to figue out with epoxy I am going to use.  I looked at west systems six10, Aquapoxy, and injectadeck.  Seems like all of them have different upsides and down sides.  Guess I just need to pick one.  here are the pic's of the soft spots.  There is one to the right of the windless, and one to left and back a little. 

[wingtime]

OK the windlass is pretty farback.

Odds are the deck edges and screw holes were not sealed properly.

Injectadeck is just a foam. I think it would work good if the core is almost totally gone and there is a big void to fill.

Luckily my deck had time ever to dry out and the remaining rotted wood was dust. It was wild where the epoxy mixture would show up while injecting. Most of the time ever it would be the adjacent holes. Other times it would skip nearby holes and show up 8" or more away.

[farnz1611]

Yea.  I'm going on vacation for a week, but When I get back I am going to drill a hole and see what I am working with.  What type/brand of epoxy did you use?

[RickK]

Look from the anchor locker inside the cabin and look up, taking pics with your phone so you can zoom in later. The windlass could take a lot of load, more than intended - people use them not within the manufacturers guidelines, So make sure the area it is mounted to is solid.

[wingtime]

Yeah people use them to winch the boat in rough seas to the anchor and then to pull the anchor oout of the mud etc.  They are meant only for retrieving the anchor!

[CuttingLoose]

New to the forum, but wanted to share what I’ve seen. 

There are plenty of YouTube videos provided from expert builders. 

I had the same issue of a soft deck on my ‘84 290 XF. 

The best approach is to take an angle grinder and cut up the existing top fiberglass skin and replace the rotted core with new core.  You can keep cutting until you find where the soppy wood stops and dry wood has remained unaffected.  In my case, I removed the whole 4’ x 8’ bow section.  New foam core, resined back in the old top skin and did a couple layers of fiberglass on top.  For the spot where I’m adding a winch, i used Coosa. 

The experts I listened to said never to waste time drilling holes and injecting epoxy.  Even wood hardeners don’t spread well when injected.  It’s best to open up the deck, dry out all the moisture, resin in new core and seal it up. 

Plenty of videos from experts out there on how to fiberglass.  A little practice and playing with the materials to get the hang of it.