Hunt cabin sole replacement

[John T in TX]

I am considering the purchase of an '86 (Hunt) 28-2 and, if acquired, it will need a cabin sole replacement. If anyone has tackled this job--ideally on a Hunt boat--what am I looking at here as a project? I'm guessing that there is a teak/holly ply layer over some thickness of marine ply. Under this would be fiberglass and wood stringers and floors. There must also be some sort of compression post step. It's unknown if a sole tear out would require the dismantling and removing of benches and bulkheads.

It would be a job that I'd rather do than to farm it out to the boatyard. But, there may be a complicating factor here that I am missing that would be worth it to get the yard's carpenter involved. Has anyone torn out and rebuilt a sole? What am I up against here? Thanks in advance.

John in Texas

[rcvesselstyn]

I've done three cabin soles. Two on cals and one on a wooden South Coast. The wood boat was a huge project and indeed involved wooden stringers and replacing supports. The Cals were a breeze. The Cal 25 had a thin plywood teak and Holly glued to the cabin sole. This had delaminated because the boat had been underwater. We removed it and used glue remover to get rid of the leftover glue. The Fiberglass sole underneath was fine so we just put in carpet. On our current Cal 2 29 the sole was teak strips again glued right over the fiberglass sole. the glue had become brittle so it was very easy to pull up all the teak. The Fiberglass cabin sole was in good shape and the Teak needs serious cleaning so I haven't rebedded the teak as of yet. I would wager that the later Cals would have the same basic structure. The cabin sole is part of the lower half of the internal hull liner and serves as a structural framework. The teak and Holly ply is just window dressing on the fiberglass cabin sole. Good luck.

[jimoconnor97]

We did our 1987 Cal 33-2 several tears ago. It went much better than we had anticipated. We removed to original marine plywood and used it as a pattern to cut the new holly/teal plywood (1/2" as I recall) Several stringers had to be replaced. My recollection is that we patterned and cut the new sole one weekend and did several coats of varnish the next weekend. The table had to be removed for the installation. We just cut the plywood around the keel stepped mast.

[John T in TX]

We did our 1987 Cal 33-2 several tears ago. It went much better than we had anticipated. We removed to original marine plywood and used it as a pattern to cut the new holly/teal plywood (1/2" as I recall) Several stringers had to be replaced. My recollection is that we patterned and cut the new sole one weekend and did several coats of varnish the next weekend. The table had to be removed for the installation. We just cut the plywood around the keel stepped mast.

Thanks, Jim. So it sounds like you didn't have to get under the benches or bulkheads. Correct?