Which Adhesive?

[Jimmylovescake]

So far on my renovation of an Old Enterprise I have relied on West system Epoxy with two separate additives, one for glueing and one for fairing.
I am almost at the stage of the renovation when I need to start thinking about putting the new deck on, and with all the work I have done so far I have realised how much a wooden boat can flex, something that isn't a property listed in the strong points for Epoxy.

Having spent some time tending to the areas where the deck was glued I want to ensure that it well protected for the future, so my Question is:
Should I be considering alternatives to Epoxy to glue the deck back on to allow for natural flex of the boat without risking any cracking to the glue (which should be keeping water out of a difficult to dry joint as well as hold it together)?

Any advice, as usual, will be gratefully received.
Thanks
Jimmy

[Lukey T]

I used 106 epoxy to fix problems with the hull, deck and carlings on my old Merlin. Was by far the strongest point of the boat. Resisted all the flex in the hull and there was a lot as she was old and built with a high bow tank.

The old cascamite gule continued to crack until most of the deck, carlings and gunnels we're epoxy.

[Obscured by clouds]

if it's a composite [grp hull. wood decks] then I would seriously consider sikaflex. See my article on rebuilding a grp N18 for the reasoning and process: http://www.cvrda.org/wp-cvrda/n18-sibrwd-1/

[roger]

Putting the deck back on should I hope reduce the amount of flex. You want to minimise the amount of flex in any boat. All the boats I have redecked and used west epoxy have had no problems at all.

[JimC]

Epoxy is pretty good for flex, curiously one of the reasons epoxy foam sandwich is much better than polyester foam sandwich is because the epoxy flexes more.

You want to use a mix that is strong on microfibres if you think its a flex area, and no use of silica at all.

So carry on using epoxy and don't worry about it:-)

[Jimmylovescake]

That's brilliant help, thanks folks.

[roger]

As Jim says microfibres or sawdust seems to work equally well if a little more lumpy.