Hi all,
my new to me Nacra 5.2 (solid GRP) from '84 has a soft rear deck (in front of the rear cross bar). From the forums and other on-line sources I could find it appears that there are two fixes:

1) replace whole rear deck (if available).
2) cut a hole for an access hatch, turn upside-down and reinforce from the inside.

Does any one know of any other (cheaper or smarter) ways of doing this type of repair?

I don't know if Nacra still sells decks... I have e-mailed them though. OTOH, working through a tiny access hatch seams awkward.

Any ideas?

Dennis

Is it soft or does it just flex a little? The decks since they are solid fiberglass will move some when you push hard enough and that is normal, same goes for the hull. If you still want to stiffen them then look at some of the previous posts about removing the deck and then add a couple layers fiberglass to the underside.

Hokie,
two experienced cat sailors have looked at the soft area and both agreed something should be done about it. Compared to the port hull's top deck, the starboard deck is a LOT more flexible.

Taking the decks off and glassing the underside sounds like a smart solution if I can't get hold of new decks.

I have seen a repair done by cutting an access hole on the inside of the hull, not on the deck, just in front of the rear crossbar. With the boat turned over they did the repair (much easier as the glass was laid on the down side) Then he just repaired the hole he made for the repair and you could not even tell. But he was good with glass work.