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I pulled the deck off my 19 guardian tonight, and it was better than expected. About 10 screws were loose in one corner, and I'm going to drill out 3/8", and fill with marine tex. Then drill, and tap, for the screws. The area of the deck is soft around those 10 screws, but only about 1/2". I've only raised the deck about a foot, so that I don't have to disconnect the wires. Would it be possible to clamp a board covered with wax paper to the bottom of the deck, and fill theses holes with marine tex too? Also, should I put gluvit in the other holes in the boat to help strengthen the wood? Can you use marine tex in a west system caulking tube for easier injection in the holes?
I'm in the middle of this on my 24 Outrage right now. I thought just the section of the tank deck up by the console was wet. I pulled the deck to check on the whole thing, since I had to do the fore deck anyways, and I'm glad I did. It felt a little soft in some spots, but when I pulled the fiberglass back, the entire deck was totally water logged. The outermost fiberglass mat was holding the structure together and the wet wood was the soft "filling". The point I'm trying to make is for you to be sure about why those screws are loose and why the deck is soft. Its easier to fix it now, or at the end of the season this year than it is to wait.
Your approach sounds correct for what you are considering. Is there water seeping from the 10 screw holes?
777: You are likely to get a number of replies because many Whaler owners have been down this same route. The root cause appears to be that the deck above the fuel tank is not made as waterproof as the rest of the boat. The flimsy mat used to seal the core plywood cracks around the margins (and sometimes in the middle, near access covers) and water finds its way into the core. As Pinion mentions, sometime it looks good because you can't see it behind the fiberglass covering. The "best" solution is to pull the deck when you have time and check from the bottom side completely. If it is ok, then you can fix the bad areas and put it back with some piece of mind. If it is bad in many places, you can easily strip off the plywood, and replace it doing a proper job of making it waterproof. There are many repair videos and/or photos of this repair on this site and other places, so I am not going to attempt to describe it. Let's just say that it is not a difficult job, just dirty and you must proceed carefully. If you are not handy with wood and fiberglass (epoxy too), you could farm this out to a professional.
With regard to your proposed repairs, it is hard to visualize without some pictures. Best way to get good advice is to take some pics and post somewhere members can access it. However if the backing wood, into which the deck screws are installed, is wet, you probably should let it dry after you drill it out. Wet wood will not hold epoxy or polyester resin. What you want is for good, dry wood to absorb the resin and form a strong "hockey puck" into which you can drill and remount the screws. If you drill into black wood, meaning it is rotting, then the repair can grow in scope. Again, I am not going to describe what to do in this case, as there is lots of advice. And many people have different valid ways of making the repair. For example, some people would use thickened WEST system epoxy, some MarineTex, some mix their own by using chopped fibers and resin.
Putting Gluvit (which is epoxy resin) into the holes to strengthen the wood is fine, but only if the wood is dry and in good condition.
Also you ask about putting MarineTex into a caulking gun like the WEST system. I don't believe this will work because MarineTex is extremely thick and viscous, where injection of other resin mixtures is thinner and will flow much better.
Take your time to research the alternatives. As Pinion wrote, you might be better off pulling the deck after the season and doing a good inspection....especially if you like the boat and want to keep it!
Rather than using Marinetex, what I did was hole saw 3/4" holes, making the holes bigger at the bottom than the top, then pour in some slow-set epoxy. You can drill it and use the same screws. I did this on a 22 Outrage with a big t-top in 2008 and it has never come loose or had any screws pull out. The original wood that whaler put in the hull had rotted due to the previous owner not keeping the deck seams properly sealed with caulk. I use Lifeseal for the deck seams.
I think the reason both of my decks had failed was 1) due to poor maintenance by the PO, and, 2) none of the holes made during manufacturing were ever epoxied or sealed. They just drilled through and called it a day.
I wasn't able to track down a single root cause after ripping everything apart and cleaning the boat.
Once I finish the project up this week, I'm going to be drilling the holes from the top, tape them, flip the decks over, overbore the holes from the underside and refill them with epoxy. Then I'm going to flip it back over and re-drill after the epoxy cures. This way I can be sure that all of the holes are water tight and that the plywood is physically separated from the holes. Then I'll seal the holes and perimeter of the decks with 4000. It sounds like a lot of work, but it shouldn't be more than an hour to do the job.
