replacing stringer, leaving inside skin intact?

[crabbydad]

removed my tank in my 1989 tournament. I have some stringer rot in the tank coffin and some extending up towards the front past the bulkhead which was rotten and removed. I removed a small section of the rotten stringer and drilled a hole thru and foam is dry in that section. after drilling a few more holes, if all the foam seems dry I was thinking of leaving the floor intact, removing the stringer and leaving the fiberglass skin on the foam side. I could grind it clean and reglass a few layers, the press the new stringer in and retab the side towards the tank coffin, as well as covering the whole stinger in cloth. anyone ever done this? any advise? the floor actually feels nice and solid except for a small section between the front seats. I am going to cut that part out and repair.

 

[crabbydad]

I cut out the front part of the deck because a section of it was spongy, the wood core was pushing out thru the bottom. Planning on trying to repair this the same as an access cover, using the top layer with the non skid over. At least one of the outer stringers is wet. I'll give it a few days to dry and take a look and decide how to proceed. I really don't want to replace the outer stringers ,just figured on doing the inners. the floor felt very solid except for the small spot in front of the fish box. All the wood I cut in the perimeter of the floor looked the way it probably did when it was put down-hated to cut it up.

 

[gw204]

You'll need to expose a lot more of the outer stringer in order to get it to dry in a couple of days. Allowing air to get to just the top edge may allow it to eventually dry out...but my guess is that it will take at least a year to do so.

I can totally understand not wanting to take down the outer stringers. But you're already deep into surgery so why not just do it now? The additional expense will be fairly minimal and you'll end up knowing what you've got under the deck.

The only other option I might consider is hogging out the outer stringer(s) with a chainsaw and then filling them with a pourable transom compound like Arjay.

 

[crabbydad]

after closer inspection, closer to the rear of the exposed stringer, the stringer is mush, so i'm gonna cut up the rest of the floor and do it right. I will feel better knowing i replaced everything that needed to be replaced.

 

[suzukidave]

any theories yet on how the water got in?

 

[crabbydad]

I removed the rear of the sole back to just past the last bulkhead in case I need to replace that. Probably only the outer stringer on starboard side will be the only one to stay. I cutout 4 inches of foam alongside one of the stringers and did find a small amount of water saturation at the very bottom. I was going to try and leave as much of it as I could, but now i think i'll replace it all. the center stringer was rotten extending up under the open bow. I had to remove the bulkhead at the windshield even though it wasn't rotten so I could gain accesss to the rest of the stringer. there is another bulkhead 13 inches forward, so I'm hoping to not have to go any further than that. I think I know where the water came in. looks like water can go from the storage compartment right down between the foam. that side of the bulkhead was mush. there is a pvc pipe that runs from that side to the other. I guess that is case you need to run wires. when I saw it on the stringer drawing I have, I thought it was for drainage. I think I will add a pvc here to drain water down to the hull to drain back to the bilge area. I think I may use one side of the tabbing and cloth that is in place from the rotted stingers in the center. I post some pics later

 

[Skiffler]

I am finishing replacing stingers in my 25 Trophy. I removed the tanks and cut out the one side of the skin with a grinder. Most of the wood came out easy because it was like mulch. I used a flapper disk to clean up the skin I left then epoxied a new piece of ply. I then glasses the plywood in with 2 layers of 18 oz woven roving.

I then learned the outer stingers were rotten. So I cut a 3/4" slot directly above the stringer and dug all the wood out most of it came out easy because again it was mulch. A 5/8" paddle bit and a long saws all blade helps too also a file helps clean up the skins. I cut a piece of 5/8 ply and epoxied the hell out it and placed it in the slot, then I poured more epoxy between the wood and skin to be sure the voids were filled.

 

[Skiffler]

I cut the wood stringer to the middle of the deck height and then cut a 4 inch strip of the fiberglass off either side of the deck. I then glassed 1 layer of woven roving and 2 layers of mat over the wood stringer and the deck. I covered the new glass with a thickened epoxy to level out he deck height. I plan to paint the deck in the spring to cover up the mess. I didn't have the courage to cut the whole deck out.

 

[crabbydad]

unfortunately, after removing the rest of the floor and going over the whole boat, I found delamination along the port side approximately 5" wide x 8' long. In addition to that, there was delamination in the front. Looks like the boat was tied to a pier during a bad hurricane. Lots of damage to the port side that was covered up. the bow was actually fiberglassed and faired and rebuilt together. Unfortunately I am going to strip this boat and scrap the hull. So if anybody needs any parts, let me know