knees?

[navahoIII]

Hi, I am new to the world of Daysailers and I am in love with our "new" DSI (circa 1962). Not supprisingly, she needs some TLC.

One problem is that there is a crack on her afterdeck running from the cockpit almost to the transom on the port side. I noticed that there are no knees supporting the deck there, so I wonder if after fixing the crack it is advisable to put a knee under the deck of both sides? Marine plywood?

[Wyatt]

Hi NavahoIII

I have a 67 DS I which I turned over last winter in order to redo the hull. In the process, I took off the coamings and inspected the two knee braces at the forward end of the cockpit. The plywood had delaminated and wasn't even supporting the deck. I also noticed cracking at the rear deck corners of the cockpit. So I made up three new knee braces for each side using 3/4" treated plywood and epoxied them in place using thickened epoxy. Once dry, I spraypainted each brace in order to protect the epoxy from UV degradation. While I was at it, I also drilled out all of the existing screw holes that had fastened the coamings with a 1/4" drill and filled the holes back up using thickened epoxy and a bovine syringe that I purchased at our local ag supply store. Very happy with the results-- a very firm side deck and firmly attached coamings. Good Luck.

[navahoIII]

Thanks for the advice!

How would you keep the knees in place while the epoxy hardens? Use screws too?

Is the 3/4" treated plywood virtually the same as marine? What is it treated with? What about plain old pressure treated lumber?

[Wyatt]

NavahoIII:

I had the boat upside down, so the knees stayed in place on their own.

And, yes, I used pressute-treated 3/4" ply. They sometimes sell 2'x2' at Home Depot and Lowes around here. I think marine would probably be better, but I can't see shelling out $ 80.00 for what the knees require.

Regards,

Wyatt