As mentioned previously, I opened up the decks in the fall then covered the boat with it's winter cover. The cover has a 24 hr. solar fan installed in it, allowing any moisture under the cover to be dispelled outside. The wait was then on for some warm weather, figuring it would be April or May before we could start rebuilding. Luckily we had an unusually warm March and was able to begin repairs much sooner.
First step was laying down Bi-axial cloth stitched to mat onto the original interior (bottom) skin which was left mostly intact. This and everything else was coated out generously with West System Epoxy. I then took the new balsa core sheets and draped them over a piece of 6" PVC pipe and saturated all edges of the balsa core squares. This was laid immediately on the bi-axial/mat, then covered with another layer of epoxy saturated bi-axial/mat. A release film was laid down ( which didn't work as planned) and plywood and weights were set on top to compress during curing. Some may ask why balsa core? A friend who owns Waterline Systems in RI, and has re-built more boats than I can imagine, said to put in what you take out. Otherwise you end up with two different substrates that could flex unevenly and crack.
After the structural re-coring and glassing was cured, we gave it a light sanding with a DA sander and thorough cleaning. Next came the cosmetic fun of filling with thickened West System Epoxy, letting cure, then sanding off high spots and filling low spots. This filling and fairing continued for a few days until I was satisfied with the shape of the deck.
