Re: Cracks on floor & hull pics what sealant?
Regjen,
I may be new to boats as well, but I can tell you after helping sailor77.7 pull the floor out of his boat that there is good cause for concern. Almost all of the plywood was waterlogged and some was just plain rotten. About 2/3 of the floatation foam was soaked and there was about 4"-6" of standing water in a spot that didn't have any foam. The drainage on this boat was terrible (read that non-existant under the floor) and we are going to fix it. We took great care when pulling the floor to prevent damaging the hull or stringers underneath the floor. Atleast one of the transverse (crossbrace) stringers will have to be replaced. We have not had time to clean all the dirt and gunk out of the bottom so that we can fully inspect all of the stringers yet. With all that being said it is not hard work to pull the floor, it is however time consuming and tedious. Start with a little test hole where the cracks are and go from there. Keep cutting until you run into hard dry wood and foam. Take your time and be careful you should be fine. I would strongly advise against using a saws-all or jig saw as you can't control the depth of the cut very well. I would use a circular saw with the blade set to about 1/2' spinning a blade meant for fiberglass or tile. The fiberglass near the gunwales was very thick, but very thin in the middle of the floor. We used air powered cut-off wheels and it worked pretty good. If you do find that you have water underneath leave the holes open and let it dry out. Could take a while, keep the boat covered with a tarp and be patient. That is all the advice I can give at the moment. Let us know what you find when you start to cutting. Good luck and be safe.