The plywood core of the helmsman seat was rotted away. After washing the boat or after a rain, when we sat on the helmsman seat it was like sitting on a sponge. Water just oozed out of the seams.

David and I carefully removed the wood plugs holding the planks of teak in, removed the screws (some had to be drilled out), and then pried the teak planking off the top of the seat. It wasn’t hard to pry the planks off as the plywood core was so soft.

After removing the teak planks from the top of the seat, the rotten core was exposed. It took one day to clean out the mess, and another two days the seat dry out (when it’s a 100 degrees plus outside, it makes drying faster :). Our initial plan was to get another piece of marine grade plywood and cut it to fit as the new core. This, however, ended up being more complicated than we thought it would be. The wood would have to be cut to the right size, both top and bottom would have to be shaped to match the curves of the seat, everything filled with expoxy...... the advise we were getting was way more than we were comfortable with. What we ended up doing was getting some West Systems epoxy and mixing in some filler. The thickened epoxy was poured into the cavity of the seat where the plywood core use to be, and let to dry for a couple of days. Once the epoxy was dried, it was faired down until the teak planks were level with the rest of the seat top. The planks were then screwed back in place, seams were caulked with a one part wood deck caulking, and the seat varnished. In all a weeks worth of work and now we have a comfortable, dry place to sit.