Cabin roof flex?

[noonmark]

I am a new owner of a 1983 cp19 that is in very good condition for the year. Just needs the basic tlc stuff . 
I was power washing the deck today and at one point I stepped up on top of the cabin roof just astern the tabernacle and I was shocked at how much deflection there was in the deck. So much in fact, that I immediately stepped off to the side of the deck, as I thought I was going to potentially cause damage.  By the way, I am not a big guy (160 lbs). The gelcoat shows no sign of crazing in the area and the tabernacle is very solid. While I was only standing there a second, my guess would have been at least an inch of deflection. Is this normal?

[rdcvsmith]

The sliding hatch is not as strong as it looks!
What hull number is your '83 CP19?, ...I have #109
-Ray

[skip1930]

At 203 lb I've been walking the hatch and the cabin top for years on my CP-19.
Let her flex. Mine doesn't flex anywhere near an inch. No cracking, no problem.

skip.

[wes]

Hi Noonmark - if you are talking about the actual fiberglass deck and not the sliding hatch, I would be very concerned about 1" of deflection on a CP 19. I weigh more than you and my 19 (1988) is stiff as a board in that area. Although Com-Pac doesn't use the dreaded balsa coring and therefore isn't very susceptible to water intrusion and rot, there is some plywood coring in areas that reinforce deck hardware. Is the deflection area close to the screws that attach the mast tabernacle? That is a common source of water intrusion. If you have an area of rotted plywood the fix is major surgery - cut it out, replace the wood, re-glass. Some people do this from the cabin side below, especially if there is no cracking/crazing on the exterior and the finish is in good shape. There are other threads on this topic on the site.

Wes

[noonmark]

Wes, you are correct that I was not standing on the sliding hatch, but rather in front of it, as it was closed while I was washing the deck. I wouldnt be as surprised to see the hatch flexing as that is meant to be lightweight, but this area of the deck between the tabernacle and the front edge of the closed hatch moves enough that looking at the ceiling inside the cabin while someone is standing up there is pretty scary. I have read that there is wood under the tabernacle that is susceptible to rot but that area seems rock solid, although I haven't poked around under it yet. The area I am referring to is well away from any hardware attachment point. I haven't found other people discussing this being an issue so maybe its an over reaction or maybe this area was strengthened on subsequent models?

Ray- we are pretty close, I have #162.

[wes]

Hmm. My hull is #453 (1988) so perhaps this is a generational thing, although most of the changes over the product life of the CP 19 were more related to cosmetic & feature improvements, not construction quality. Your problem doesn't sound like the typical issue of water intrusion around poorly bedded hardware. I encourage you to contact Gerry Hutchins at the factory to discuss. He has an encyclopedic knowledge of the 19 and would know if there were some serial numbers that experienced fabrication problems. Com-Pac (Hutchins) is a family operation, to the great benefit of all us owners.

Or maybe others on this site will pipe up and say "aha." That happens a lot .

- Wes

[Salty19]

Noonmark,

Welcome to the forum.

The deck should feel rock solid.  The soft roof problem might be caused by separation of the deck with the cabin liner. Check out this thread:

http://cpyoa.geekworkshosting.com/forum/index.php?topic=3538.0

[noonmark]

Salty, I think you are spot on. There is really a LOT of flexibility right in this area. To summarize the conversation from two years ago that Salty referred to I will copy and paste what Doug142 said in 2010:

"It works!  If you have flexing in your cabin roof by the mast step back towards the sliding hatch cover, it might just could be that the liner inside has separated from the roof.  They are suppose to be bonded together.  It adds ALOT of strength. 
Solution, at least in my case, was/is to drilll small holes through the roof and just the roof, NOT the headlinner also, and mix up some epoxy and inject it into the roof [with a large syringe].  I did mine with holes, 8 of them, spaced about 8 inches apart down both sides of the center line of the roof.  It did take a bit of epoxy, but IT WORKED!"

It was according to Doug from the thread that this was the advice from Gerry Hutchins.

This is a truly unforeseen project as I looked over the boat very carefully before purchase and it is in otherwise very good shape... but thats the risk taken when buying a 30 year old boat I suppose. Fortunately it sounds like something that I can do within a weekend, and thank goodness does not require re-fiberglassing of anything.

Doug are you out there? Or is there anyone else who has done this procedure and have any further advice? I am blown away by all of the help so far, thanks to everyone.

On a side note, I am getting the hull soda blasted within the next week to remove the last 30 years of paint. Then I will be doing a fresh epoxy barrier and paint. I will do my best to document and share my work for your viewing enjoyment.

[skip1930]

I'll bet the construction in terms of 'what's under the tabernacle' remains the same during the life of production for the CP-19.
"...or maybe this area was strengthened on subsequent models?" is not real likely.

We were sticking the stick up on my buddies CP-19 when the tabernacle let go...all four tiny short factory screws popped out of the wet, soft plywood under the glass.
So we ran over to West Marine and bought a large container of Marine-Tex, some ss 1/4 bolts, ss flat washers, ss finish washers, [the mast sits these between the mast and tabernackle], and more ss flat washers and acorn nuts.

We grabbed the battery powered drill, a 1/4 bit and drilled four holes using the tabernackle for the spacing, clean through the roof around the Compression Post. One bolt went through the overhead light. But with the light's cover on, you can't see the washer and acorn nut. The others are so close to the diameter of the post that the flats of the acorn nuts 'jam' on the post making it necessary to turn the screws in from the screw heads at the tabernacle. Of course this was all bedded in with the Marine-Tex and in about two hours we had the stick up and sailing. From time to time we had to wipe away the drip of Marine -Tex. I'm sure the Marine-Tex finished curing over the next day. The tabernacle doesn't do much in terms of holding the mast. The standing rigging does that. Also, Marine-Tex holds my 'Keel-Boot' onto the bottom of my flat keel.
The tabernackle repair was what? Five seasons ago. About the same for the 'Keel-Boot'.

Side bar: It is interesting to read in Bob Burgess's Handbook of Trailer Sailing, that the early CP-16's were through bolted. Clean through the tabernacle and right into the cabin interior's roof. Not unsightly, the teak hand rails and hatch slides are through bolted, right?

Thumbs up for hull soda blasted fiberglass. Originally designed for RIM, soft bumpers that had been miss-painted and needed to be de-painted without profiling the 'rubber' flat. Don't want to loose the molded in curve from the molds you know. I soda blasted industrial batch curing ovens I rebuilt and was used by Ekco-Glaco for curing their coatings on leased bakery pans. EK earns about $350 million a year leasing bakery pans.

skip.