Old rubber roof & carpet at SkipperLiner when we had the boat refitted.
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Our 1997 78 ft Skipperliner Miss KAY-NEIN (formerly Sunrise) has endured a lot in its short existence. The boat was constructed using a commercial rubber roofing membrane glued to 2 3/4" layers of interior(comments from roofing contractors) grade plywood. I am told that the main difference between interior and exterior grade plywood is the voids in each of the layers. Skipperliner overlaps the layers of membrane creating humps which they then cover with carpet. The carpet does a passable job of hiding the seams and holding water. They then proceed to screw rail stanchions along the edge of the roof directly through the membrane. We found a combination of 3M 5200 and butyl tape as sealant. The problem this method caused was that since the membrane gets compressed from the screws into the stanchion base the water pools areound each base and the carpet helps ensure that it stays there. Because there are only a few 1 1/4" screws in each 30" tall railing base attached into the softening edge of the plywood (due to rainwater leakage) people lean on the railng, winds buffet the railings etc. All this action lossens the screws which then begin to strip out and allow water to enter. We tried first removing all railings and using West System epoxy to fill all the screw holes then rescrew with new, slightly longer screws. To no effect. The disaster this problem caused inside the boat is quite evident. Damaged headliner, walls and window coverings. Pam was ready to kill me. It was planned in 2005 to replace the roof in 2006. Here are some photos of the 6 week event. My God, I have not worked that hard in years. Here are some photos which will shown what we did to try to eliminate what I felt were inherent design problems with the original roof.
Have to go back to work now and earn some money to pay for my boat. I think my investment for the roof and railing replacement for this project was in excess of $60,000. I think I am going to faint.
PS, Thank you Twin City Marina, Inver Grove Heights for all your help and the Beautiful new welded railings. |
Pieced together railings are inherently week and require regular canvas replacement.
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The base plates were spaced and mounted using the unfinished railings.
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Now ready to apply urethane sealer to last area under flybridge. 3 coats rolled on.
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Twin City Marina mechanic (Ted)
dissassembling the
flybridge
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Finished deck around flybridge
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Thank god for the davit I spec'd for the Jet Skies. Saved our lives with moving stuff on and off the top deck.
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You can see that the slightly raised railing mounting plates easily allowed the deacking material to conform. No standing water at these rail stanchions.
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New railings were attatched to roof with 3/8" aluminum base plates routered into the plywood roof. Each plate was glued with urethane adhesive 12 large stainless screws.
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We added bigger & heavier & more aluminum angle to stiffen up the flybridge components. We used galvanized unistrut bolted to raised mounting plates "ala railings" and clamped the structure down to the deck. Only stainless stell aluminum or galvanized metal were used.
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Lucked out and found
gray butyl tape to seal
the
railing stanchions &
fine thread
machine
screws
attatching them to
the mounting plates. Aluminum railings have now been powder coated. We opened each mounting hole so rubber tape will not stick to threads.
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We eliminated all antenna mounts and brackets that were used to penetrate the old membrane and designed mounts on a new railing system. Railings were made in only 3 sections and machined sleeves were used at the 2 intersections. Instead of canvas we decided to go with aluminum plate. Each mounted with 6 machine screws into tabs on the railings. For the A/C units we used perferated aluminum. We also integrated flag holders.
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Over 50 man hours sanding to remove old adhesive. ouch!
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Lonseal marine decking. Expensive but nice. First seen at houseboat show about 3 years ago.
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