Swan 36 deck delamination?
Hello nice people of The S&S Swan forum.

I have been admiring Olin stephens sense and feel for aesthetics for 20years and are finally planning of owning one within 0-3years time.


I am currently looking for a swan 36 for sale ,that has a few problems, the main being delamination of the deck.
The yacht is grp deck (no teak).

Is this common problem with 36 and is the deck cored with balsa or plywood. I would hope it would be single laminate(just grp) , but i have understood that decks are not.

The wood is propably wet and replacing the deck must be very expensive.??? any ideas how expensive if the whole deck is renowated.
what is the recomendated method fixing the deck. Is this chisel work and re lamination or what??

should i wait a bit more to find a boat without delamination issues or is this inevitable eventually for every example of 36.

all ideas are mostly appreciated.
regards Rikardo

Hi Rikardo and welcome to the Forum,

hope you find "your" S&S Swan 36 and will join the Association too!

Replacing a teak deck is of course an expensive job, you could spend just a few thousand USD (Euros) or tens of thousands, it depends what kind of wood you want and where is the shipyard and craftmanship level. In Mediterranean area and north east coast of USA they are quite expensive, while there are shipyards very affordable in other areas, e.g. in the Caribbean (look at the maintenance page, there is a beautiful S&S Swan 38 -Fortefiore- with a beautiful new teak deck laid down in the Caribbean).

As far as I know delamination of a GRP deck is a very very very unusual problem on S&S Swans, but of course not all the boats are the same, if a previous owner did not take good care of his boat, and did a lot of holes to install hardware without proper care, ecc. ecc., maybe this particular boat has delamination problems.

Keep us posted!

Fair winds!

Matteo (38/067 Only You)

Hello Ricardo
May I ask, if the Swan 36 you are looking at is at Lymington in the UK? I know the Swan 36 there has the problems you describe.
Best Regards
David (Swan 411/033 Baron)

hi rikardo, before to buy it I suggest you to have a look in the mantenance page of this site. You will see how much work to refit 36/028 Abel Tasman. Best regards Federico

Thank you all for your replies.

Matteo
When i get my own boat i will surely want to be a member and support the community.

Marvin
The boat in question is not in UK.

Kamo
The 36/028 Abel Tasman on the maintenance page was one of the reasons that me scared.

At this point of my life i just dont have time needed to that kind of repairwork. And if something is done it is always worth doing it right.

Is anyboy aware of the deck core material on 36.

And mabye the most important question would be
can the delamination be left to be dealed later (after 3-5 years) or will it compromise the integrity of the hull.
The boat in question has 3 areas of delamination, 30cm x 30cm on front deck and 50cm x 50cm on both side decks near the shrouds.
I no it is quesswork but mabye your quesses are more expert than mine.
Regards Riku

With best regards Riku

Dear Ricardo
The 36 has fairly thick skins in the deck, and unless you intend to cross oceans you can well sail for the time you suggested with these small areas of delamination. The core material is foam, and repair could be attempted by injecting resin into the voids. Has the yacht been in areas where there are freezing temperatures in the winter?
This could be the reason if moisture has got in.
Kind regards
Lars

Thank you Lars for sharing your wisdom!

It is very much appreciated.

Yes the boat has always been in the area where it is freezing temps for months in the winters.

With kind regards Rikardo