A couple of questions to help answer the question.  How was the deck finished, fiberglass and varnish or just varnish.  How deep the scratches.

If shallow scratch over fiberglass, then water probably did not penetrate to wood and stain it.  In which case, sand lightly and see if black area disapears.  

If it is a scratch throught varnish (and or epoxy) that allowed the plywood to get wet, then the stain may be in the plywood and will probably not sand out.  You might be able to sand, then try some kind of bleaching, then possibly use a stain to get wood color back and then seal over.  

Alternative! Sand, put a nice decorative venere or logo or something over the spot and then seal it in.  

Hopefully others will have more to add.

I'm sure the boat will continue to float.

Ed

 

 

 

Thanks for your reply Ed,

The deck is finished with 4 oz glass and 3 coats epoxy, then I applied 4 coats varnish thinned slightly and wet sanded with 400 between coats.

I will sand it down this winter to restore the full deck BUT in the short term what concerns me is the black appearing in the wood, and can it be removed and not get worse when it gets wet.

The scratches can be felt with aa fingernail but I don't think they could have penetrated the wood, but I want to know if the black is permanent.

I guess I need to redesign my roof racks. They are the problem.

http://outdoors.webshots.com/photo/2491250170100154152vruHPy

Thanks,

Ted

Ted,

The larger pics we can see now are much more definitive. Looks like you got black stuff in scratches in the varnish, possibly the outermost epoxy, that should sand right out. I doubt seriously the damage is thru the cloth so there shouldn't be any permanent black staining in the wood. I have some pretty serious scratches in the bottom of a CH17lt from rocks and oyster beds that didn't come near getting thru the cloth. Looks much worse than your scratches. Haven't bothered to re-varnish cuz they're on the bottom so who sees them?

George K

Ted I built my own j-Racks for my SOF and am finishing a set for my Wife's WD12, drop me a line when you are back from out west and we can swap ideas.