In a message dated 2/9/01 5:03:05 AM, Art writes: << Anyone know of a quick and easy patch for a soft deck? Seems I heard of drilling a couple of holes and filling them with something that hardens. >> Art, Oil canning cored decks is a common problem on older boats and some not so old boats too. The problem is deterioration of the core, either collapsing of foam or rotting of balsa wood. If the area is not too great the usual fix is injecting epoxy, if larger than about 2 square feet the fix is removal of the deck over the bad spot, replacing the core, and refiberglasing the removed portion of the deck. Both jobs are messy but if you do them yourself neither is costly. It is not brain surgery. To inject epoxy: 1. Mark out the bad area with a water soluble kid's magic marker. 2. Drill 1/8" holes through the top decking over the surface in a grid pattern about 1" apart. You will drill a lot of holes. 3. Dry out the area thoroughly. Heat lamps will help but it is best to leave the boat in a dry area for several weeks. If outside, cover the area completely. 4. Buy a good epoxy resin, either West or System 3 will do. Get a handful of plastic epoxy injection syringes at any large marine supply store. 5. Start injecting resin at the lowest drilled hole. When the resin emerges from the higher holes, cover them with masking tape and keep injecting. An alternative approach is to plug the higher holes with a wood matchstick. 6. If the resin stops flowing out of higher holes move the syringe to another area and keep injecting. Ultimately you will fill all the voids between decks. 7. Cover the area with a piece of polyethylene plastic and put weights on top to compress the layers together. A couple of layers of brick work fine. 8. Allow to cure about a week. Remove the weights and plastic. Sand and paint the surface to hide the pockwork of drill holes. Removal of top layer: 1. Screw up your courage. Mark out the area to be replaced. 2. Use a small contractor's powersaw or a router and cut off the top deck carefully allowing the saw blade or router tip to extend only far enough to just pierce the thickness of the deck. 3. Remove the decking carefully. You will want to use it again. A broad chisel helps separate the decking from the rotted core. 4. The rotted core is now exposed. Chisel out the bad spots or remove the entire area. 5. Replace with new balsa core or with marine structural foam. Epoxy in place with thickened epoxy. Small areas and voids can simply be filled with thickened epoxy. 6. With a disk sander bevel the edges around the cutout portion of the deck and the upper edge of the removed portion of the deck. About a 2" bevel is right. 7. Epoxy the removed portion of the deck back in place using thickened epoxy. 8. Epoxy fiberglass tape over the beveled gap around the cutout. Use several layers to build the area back up to normal height. 9. After curing, sand the tape down to deck level to hide the joint. Refinish to match the surrounding area. Neither technique is particularly difficult but both are labor intensive. That's why they cost so much at boatyard prices of $60 per hour. The total cost of materials for either job is about the price of two bottles of scotch. Buy the scotch too. Drink one before you start to get up the nerve to scalp your boat. Drink the other after you finish to congratulate yourself. (Plan B - drink both bottles before you start and sail the season with an oil canning deck). Larry Zeitlin