B473 Cracked laminate in Gally Bench top

[petti...@bigpond.com.au]

Hi List :Over time the thin laminate on our 2004 B473 French built boat galley bench tops have fractured .The bench tops in the heads are corinthian or similar material and don't have this problem. I propose to replace the counter tops in the galley with corinthian as most of the latest production boats seem to have as their bench tops now days, it is light durable and you can polish scratches out of it. Has anyone in the group experienced this and are the current tops an integrated part of the Galley's main structure or can they be removed easily .Would a kitchen Guy be the most economical to do the work or am I best to  employ a ship Wright as I want a top quality job and durable end product.

 

Martin B473

 

Mon Jouet

 

[Rick Donovan]

On Jun 16, 2012, at 2:47 AM, <petti...@bigpond.com.au> wrote:

Hi List :Over time the thin laminate on our 2004 B473 French built boat galley bench tops have fractured .The bench tops in the heads are corinthian or similar material and don't have this problem. I propose to replace the counter tops in the galley with corinthian as most of the latest production boats seem to have as their bench tops now days, it is light durable and you can polish scratches out of it.

Hi Martin

if I understand your question correctly, you are asking about the top surfaces of the counter tops in the galley. 

the US built boats did have some problems with this surface cracking in a few places. our 2002 473 did that as well, but the few lines of the cracks were very fine and limited to only a couple of places. after they formed they never got any wider or more obvious so it seemed to me to be a stress crack.

I know of a number of other early 473's that had similar issues early on in the builds. I have been lurking here since early 2002 on the Blist and I don't recall the later years having the same problem being mentioned but I could be wrong on that. I am not sure exactly when that might have been corrected at the factory. 

Beneteau did contact me to have my dealer make a repair proposed by the factory here in about early 2004 as best I can remember. they had a procedure to basically resurface the counter areas with the same materials. we chose to not have our idiot dealers people attempt this for fear they would make it worse not better. they had a terrible track record with us. as I said, when we sold the boat in the spring of 2008, these cracks had not changed from when they originally appeared.

Has anyone in the group experienced this and are the current tops an integrated part of the Galley's main structure or can they be removed easily .Would a kitchen Guy be the most economical to do the work or am I best to  employ a ship Wright as I want a top quality job and durable end product.

 

Martin B473

 

Mon Jouet

if I were going to make this modification, I would look at using a well recommended kitchen remodeling shop because I think they would have more experience with the products you might choose than the typical yard monkeys we have around here. maybe in France you have more qualified monkeys, lol. we have people that specialize in yacht interiors just as you probably do as well. they might be a good source for asking questions to get a better idea of what others have done.

I would expect that you would get a better finished product in the end using the kitchen remodeling company unless you go to a specialist. the pricing for a specialist capable of doing "yacht quality work" is going to immediately raise the price significantly in our area. I would be talking with someone else initially before going that route myself.

there are so many products out there to consider for this counter top that I am certainly not qualified to make a suggestion. you mentioned being able to polish scratches out. in 7 seasons, we never felt the need to do that on any of the surfaces in our 473 and the wife can be rather rough with things at times. we never needed to use anything beyond a good cleaner wax on our galley top to remove any skid marks or grime . I thought these original factory surfaces held up very well. any of the normal kitchen counter top materials I have in my mind would be even more resistant to damage.

in a normal house hold kitchen it is routine to remove the existing top and replace with the new surface. I don't think that is an option with the 473 galley tops unless you are prepared for some major alterations to get that top surface off. depending on what material you have in mind, I would think about adding a thin layer of that chosen material right on top of the existing surface should be the first thing to consider. even a simple laminate type product would offer many colors and looks that would be a huge change in appearance over the white counter tops there now. if properly applied, this laminate should be very durable and look good at the same time. I would think that leaving the existing top surfaces would give the installer a great surface to build from. as long as the thickness is not too great, I don't think you would even notice the additional height much at all. 

good luck and be sure to send us some before and after photos of this project.

Rick Donovan

Biddeford, Maine