A1 Restoration – Foredeck Veneering

The foredeck – not too many holes..

Unlike the aft deck, there had been fibre glass matting applied to the whole of the fore deck area. Most of it came off easily once the various fittings had been removed, but some localised areas needed the application of the hot air gun. Once the matting was removed, the true extent of the damage to the foredeck could be appreciated.

A brief aside here; I don’t have a problem with the practice of applying fibre glass matting (see A89 “Colchide”) providing the application is done properly. But it must be done properly – and in A1’s case, it hadn’t. Unfortunately, the glass fibre matting had been applied over the poor areas – thus disguising areas of damage and rot, which exacerbating the situation rather than improving it.

Anyway, the good news was that the majority of the damage on the fore deck was limited to the outer and middle layers of veneers except for one area where the damage had gone through all three layers of veneer.

Unfortunately, this hole was where the deck curves up at the fore end of the blister. A1’s blister, incidentally, is very small, shallow and not in the least like the upside down dinghy shape of subsequent production boats. Getting temporary battens in place to support the new veneers in this concave shape was interesting.

Once again, the actual veneering was straightforward once the battens were in place.