Deck Repairs

Has anyone out there done any deck repairs on their Contessa?  I'm (un)fortunate enough to be blessed with my 74 that I now know has plywood coring.  Fun.  I cut out the galley, and saw that the cabinetry was all balsa cored and had hope, but today I learned the bad news. 

The core was all wet around the chainplate and thru deck areas.  It looks and sounds delaminated.  Brass tap hammer is your best friend.  How far the water has gotten thru the plywood, I'm still not sure.  It sounds well beyond these areas, but I'll drill, dig, and inject around all stanchion bases and other thru deck intrusions.  As far as the mid decks area goes, I'm thinking of lifting the top layers of glass, recoring with Core Mat, and re glassing - eventually to re gelcoat the decks in the non skid areas, and paint the smooth strips.  Just to make it easy - no wetsanding on the non skid.  If I did the smooth in gelcoat thered be a bit of wetsanding.  That and Gelcoat wears better than paint, and goes down almost as easy where the non skid will be.

Another point of concern for some people out there would be the transom.  On plywood cored boats especially.  There is a peice of core material (which is depending on your boat) encapsulated in the transom area.  As I've learned as well, a substandard ladder installation has made a mess of this core.  The gudgeon installation from the factory leaves a bit to be desired as well - screws thru with nuts&washers, no backing plate or nothing.  Looks like water can get in here too.

Moral of the story:  every hole thru any part of your boat is a maintenance item....