Carver Owners Forum

Once you start demo I think you will find out, water generally travels downhill even in the core, can be verified with a moisture meter and come close to the water entry point, kind of like an avalanche thin then spreads out. Real hard to make a real conclusive guess though after all these years there could have been a bad leak that was fixed long before you. Sure looks soaked.....

BenTen wrote:QR_BBPOST..... Is it possible for water to travel that far in the core, especially since the individual balsa blocks are supposed to be sealed from each other to isolate water leaks?.....

Definitely possible for water to wick throughout the core over time. The chances of each and every block being completely encapsulated varies. You will find that difficult to do and confirm before the resin starts setting up on you if you're doing a large area. Vacuum bagging during the manufacturing process helps the resin reach all areas but it really depends on a few factors. Make sure you get "endgrain" balsa core, and wet it out properly to ensure penetration.

Don't cover the mounting holes or the chain hole with balsa then drill and cut it out later. If you leave a 1/4" clearance around these areas then fill them in with a thickened mix, you will never have exposed balsa. For the chain hole, putty up to the original cutout. For mounting holes, fill them in completely with the putty then drill through the putty for mounting the hardware when the job is completed. This way, you're drilling into a solid plug of glass or epoxy rather than your core and exposing it all over again. This also serves to prevent you from crushing the core if you over torque the fasteners as the substrate in that area will be a solid mass that won't compress. And if the seal around the fasteners fails, water can't get to the core as there will be a 1/4" of glass or epoxy in the way. ALL hardware fastened to any areas of the vessel that have coring material should be done this way. I also rarely use caulking for bedding or sealing fasteners anymore, I opt for butyl tape. I've posted procedures in a couple of threads for proper fastening techniques and the use of butyl tape.

Thanks, Viper. Good info.

For anyone searching in the future I can tell you these things so far on the 3697's:

1. To access the deck rail and cleat hardware you must remove the interior "valances" (not sure if that's the correct term) that are installed in front of all side windows, along with any blinds or curtains. To do this you should be able to locate a phillips head screw approx every 18 inches or so. Once these screws are removed, and the valance is hanging, there will be wiring to the lighting fixtures above the settee and dinette.

2. The deck hardware used is a washer and nut only with no backing plates so you need two people to remove these (stanchions, cleats, etc.)

More to come as I continue to dig in!

Ben, what year is your boat . Thanks good info......

1984 Carver 36 (3697)

This is the main culprit causing my wet deck. Previous owner thought it would be a good idea to install a cleat here, where there was no internal blocking, and when tightened over time crushed the deck. On top of that the Hawse Hole was not sealed BUT there was ply in this area.... A comedy of errors.

Once opened up it was obvious why the deck was so bouncy, not that I had any doubt:



And a few hours later- the deck in this area is removed and the sopping wet core disposed of.



I put down double sided tape around the perimeter and covered this area with plastic until I could continue working.

That's a major project. Great pics of your progress!

Yes sir. Great job! Keep posting pics with your progress. What are you going to use for replacing the balsa? er

Cooler wrote:QR_BBPOST Yes sir. Great job! Keep posting pics with your progress. What are you going to use for replacing the balsa? er

Going back with the same 1" balsa that I was able to source from Defender.