Stringer Concern.... Sea Sprite

[smiles16]

I know there are hundreds if not thousands of stringer posts, but after hours of searching and reading, I still have some questions.

Mainly, I am looking for anyone with experience or knowledge of 1980's Sea Sprite boats for this.

Sorry cant get pics to post, but if you care to google "1985 Sea Sprite Continental" a brown and white one pops up that is identical to mine.

Known History:
Mine is a 1985 17' Sea Sprite Continental Mark 1 I/O bowrider with alpha one and Merc 120 (originally equipped with 140). Its been a freshwater boat its whole life and will continue to be. I purchased the boat towards the end of this summer. I dropped a new-to-me engine in and had the outdrive rebuilt. I planned to redo the interior over the spring, including the floor. The PO tried to put some love in this boat by the looks of it. He had replaced the floor (not just plywood over rot), but he did not coat it and it has a few soft spots under its nice patio carpet. Luckily I have a ski well and have a good look at the inner stringers. My half-arsed tap test did not reveal any hollow or dead spots that I can tell (but I do not have a trained ear), however, I am concerned I may have to address these.

Concern:
There is a 3" area where the tabbing to the hull looks to have delaminated a bit. I planned on fixing this when the floor is out. But with that being said, the fiberglass seems very stout on all the stringers I have access too. The engine mount bolts also snug up very tight (did not have rust on the threads when I pulled them out either. I have read on other posts that the fiberglass is the bulk of the strength, others disagree. This is why I am looking for someone with experience with the sea sprite specifically. By the way, my 200lb body jumping on the outdrive and gimbal housing did not flex the transom at all.

Bottom line:
Does it sound like I am looking at rotted stringers? Does this particular hull rely on the stringers for much structural integrity? Also, when I replace the floor do I use epoxy and screws, or something else?

I am mainly concerned about safety, but I have a tight time and money budget too. I did run the boat 5-6 times and it performed great.

Any advice or thoughts are greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[JASinIL2006]

I would definitely be drilling some test holes into the stringers, about an inch from where they meet the hull. If you get dry, light shavings, you're good. Dark and/or wet shavings indicates you'll probably be replacing more than the floor. (Your delaminating tabbing around the stringer would be concerning to me. I'd be doing a drill test there first.) If your stringers are shown to be dry, fill the holes you drilled with 3M 5200.

I can't speak specifically about that boat, but I'd be surprised if a boat builder included fiberglassed stringers if they weren't structurally necessary. Seems like builders generally don't put in anything unless it's needed.

Good luck and I hope you find dry shavings!

Jim

 

[JASinIL2006]

Oh, and when you are at the point of reinstalling the floor, you have several options. Screws (or some kind of mechanical fastener) are a good idea, as is some sort of adhesive, such as thickened resin, epoxy or construction adhesive. My restoration was with polyester resin, so I used thickened polyester resin as an adhesive, and I screwed the deck down with stainless steel screws (after pumping some 5200 into the holes). I then fiberglassed over the entire deck to keep everything waterproof (I hope).

 

[ezmobee]

When you get the deck out, you're going to find some rotted stringers. Virtually guaranteed. If you're lucky, they may be able to be patched up and your motor mounts and transom may very well be fine. As for motor mounts, the fiberglass is the strength as far as attaching the whole works to the hull. The wood inside provides the needed grip to hold the motor to the mount.

 

[smiles16]

Ezmobee: what do you have in mind for a patch? I was thinking I might be able to get away with epoxy injections and fix the tabbing. Of course this is only if the damage is confined.

I definitely plan on drilling inspection bores.

 

[mickyryan]

I would not do just a patch if you find rot go deep and get it out of there , do it once and never worry about it again

 

[ezmobee]

Normally I would agree mickyryan however if he finds that everything in the rear of the boat is good, motor mounts transom etc and only really has some bad spots in the middle, would it not be possibly to cut out the rot and sister in some new wood and glass? That's what I'd do but I'm a tin boat guy :happy: Now if he's got any rot in the rear I'd prolly do it all.

 

[smiles16]

I think I am good as far as the aft area goes. Up until this boat, the condition of stringers never crossed my mind. This is my first sterndrive, so I have done a lot more research and learned quite of but.

On my previous two boats, an '88 Bumble Bee Bass Boat OB and '76 15' Sea Sprite OB, my only concern was did the transom flex and did the motor run. In fact, on that '76 Sea Sprite, we just painted the plywood and screwed it into the stringers (didn't know any better at the time). Point being, These boats were in the same age range and had the crap ran out of them before they were sold (and this was in recent years too). Maybe I was just lucky.

Is it possible to have a 30 year old boat with minimal or no rot?

Of course, I know this all depends on its previous care. But with that said, it had 500 hours on it and much of the interior is original to the boat and in good condition. My old '76 SS had nothing left of the interior but the steering wheel, fiberglass, and the nice landscaping on floor.

 

[mickyryan]

I would say yes if it was garage kept or stored properly the biggest thing that seems to kill boats is being left in the yard full of water and neglect I have seen lately a few boats from the 70's that looked as good as the day they came off the show room floor , however they were and are garage kept splashed fished on then cleaned and returned to garage . guess that's perfect world thing lol

 

[JASinIL2006]

If you read many of the topics in the Restoration forum, you will find some where the owner discovered some limited rot in the stringers and deck, but most of the wood structure (transom, stringers, bulkheads) was fine. Much more commonly, though, you read about the rot being more pervasive than originally thought.

I hope you're among the lucky ones, but make sure you do a good evaluation when you get in there. No point in tearing up your boat only to fix it halfway. It would be a huge drag to have to go in a second time to replace stuff that could have been corrected earlier...

 

[mickyryan]

jas hit it on the head nothing like getting a good portion done the hard way then realizing it all has to be done and having to rip cap off anyways, I have resigned myself to fact that any boat I ever buy I will be removing the cap and replacing stringers and transom if its older then say 5 yrs old and even then a ton of damage can be done in 5 years by a bad owner.

 

[smiles16]

Wow 5 years! Well, I will keep this in mind and be drill some inspection bores when time comes. How big of a pain is it to pop the cap? I've read that it was just removing the rub rail and drilling out rivets. Seems to me there has to be more to it.

 

[mickyryan]

well if you were extremely lucky it was kept properly under a cover however if that was the case I imagine we probably wouldn't be having this conversation atm :0

 

[mickyryan]

only way its more is if your floor is part of cap then you might have to cut side walls where it attached to cap but it should be easy to figure out after removing rivet's and you start lifting keep eye on everything

 

[Baylinerchuck]

I'm keeping the cap on in my bow rider, as I did my Capri. Both of these boats can be gutted and restored without removing the cap IMO. There is really nothing that would be easier to reach or grind. I like the structural stability the cap gives the hull. That's just me.

 

[smiles16]

It does look like the style/design of the SS is very similar to the Bayliner.
As far as the cover, I was told it was garage kept up until end of 2014. The PO only owned for a year tops. He blew the head gasket during that time and left it trailered at a mechanic/marina. He did cover it, but the marina did not winterize the original engine or keep an eye on it. The cover's support had fell over and they let water sit on top of it while it was laying on the floor. My guess is water seeped through it am saturated the uncoated floor. It was stored bow-up, however, and there wasn't any water in the bulge area when I inspected it (I picked it up at said marina).

 

[smiles16]

I also want to note, I am including most of these details at this point so new buyers of old boats can read and learn from my experience/mistakes.

 

[mickyryan]

yeah every boat is different, they are like people , they have there own pasts lol so ... hell I wonder if there are even two of the same boat exactly built the same, seems there is a ton of stuff that varies boat to boat .

 

[smiles16]

What do you guys think of this idea....?

I've been reading about how some boats have the stringers designed so that the core does not matter.

What if I laid fiberglass over top of the existing stringer and some additional side supports? The end result would look like a trapezoid of sorts tabbed to the hull.

Seems this would save a lot of time and eliminate the worry of stringers rotting.

Another question too, does the floor need to be tabbed to the sides of the hull as well?

 

[garbageguy]

I'm sure others with more experience will be along - but I think that would be unwarranted because the rot will keep progressing to other parts of the boat (bulkheads? transom?)