1985 Marlin Stringers??

Hi Everyone,

New here and hoping someone out there can help me.

I am a newbie boat owner who just purchased a 1985 Marlin open bow. Well I knew it had a few soft spots when I purchased it and figured no big deal I can fix that with some ply... ummmm... oooops! Knew nothing about stringers! SURPRISE!!!

So today I pulled the carpet to find someone had torn out the layer of fiber glass and all the original wood for the floor and replaced it with a bunch of cut up pieces of ply

So the plan now is to redo the deck/floor or at least the areas that need repair. I am not sure how far back I should remove as I don't know how many stringers are under there, any one have any idea? Again it a 1985 Marlin open bow.

In the open bow area where it was the worst, I pulled the ply and found only one center stringer that runs from the bow to the center of the boat, not all the way back because there is a storage compartment there. The 2x4 is badly rotted however the fiberglass around it is perfect. Now do I need to cut out the fiberglass and redo the entire stringer or is it possible to remove all the rotted wood and perhaps use a marine type foam to fill in where the 2x4 was? Remember I am a complete newbie boat owner so any help would be very helpful.

Thank You

Re: 1985 Marlin Stringers??

I am in the same boat, no pun intended. Started what was supposed to be a small repair on Saturday which in two days spiraled into a full-blown tear down. You need to ask yourself if you are ready physically, mentally and financially to follow through with the project.
From working with wood I have learned one thing everyone can agree on, you rarely find "a little" rot. You need to get the floor out and see how bad it is. As far as the stringer, if someone felt it was important enough to install, it should be replaced with like material. Foam isn't structural in a 2x4 sized column, its structural when it's a big honkin section. You need to go with wood again. Though it may be tempting to hollow out the channel and glue a 2x4 back, it may rot right out again if there is a hole or crack that was the source of the water. Water wicks in every direction.

Re: 1985 Marlin Stringers??

Thanks for the info v8George. I went ahead and took up the ply to the engine and... of course rot all the way back. I will be getting a few estimates to have the stringers re-done, both in shop and mobile repair. From what I am hearing it can really get high in cost, if that's the case it may be something I tackle on my own.

I have a few other questions...

1. How much structure do these stringers really provide for this boat? This is a very low to the water boat, not very deep at all, from floor to bottom of hull maybe 4-5 inches.

2. Below is a picture of the stringers I can see from what I have pulled up. Anyone have any idea if perhaps there are more stringers running through this boat? Should I tear into it further?

View attachment 133117

3. I'm not sure what is inside the motor mount area, it is fully sealed with fiberglass, im sure there must be some sort of wood in there I don't see how you could just mount an engine to fiberglass but then again maybe you can. Question here is if there is wood there and it's rotted can you pump epoxy into it instead of removing the engine and re-doing the whole thing? To me the motor seems to be solid however with all the rot I have found im a bit concerned.

4. The pink to this boat shows as a 1985 20' Marlin, however the boat has Malibu decals and a plate inside that reads Malibu. I am trying to locate parts, but I am not sure what I should be looking for... Malibu or Marlin?

Here is a pic of the boat...

View attachment 133118

I will be using this boat on lakes and rivers. NO ocean not sure if that matters but most of the shops I called for stringer repair asked me where I would be using the boat. ??

Thanks

Re: 1985 Marlin Stringers??

00stang00 said:

Hi Everyone,

New here and hoping someone out there can help me.

I am a newbie boat owner who just purchased a 1985 Marlin open bow. Well I knew it had a few soft spots when I purchased it and figured no big deal I can fix that with some ply... ummmm... oooops! Knew nothing about stringers! SURPRISE!!!

Click to expand...

I think that I have heard this somewhere before...oh yeah I have said this very same thing lol.

Sorry your pictures didn't come through. Photobucket seems to be the site of choice for linking photos.

Check out this thread http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=510077
Lots of pictures and videos to go through, that I highly suggest, before you decide what you want to do. It is was got me going.

Also look for Woodonglass...in his signature is some great drawings on stringers, transoms and decks.

Good luck and welcome to dry dock...00stang00

Re: 1985 Marlin Stringers??

Hi stang ..... Welcome to iboats. You may want to do some core samples on your transom to see if it is bad or not. Drill a few holes from the inside of your boat into the transom (put some tape on your drill bit so you don't drill all the way thru the transom) get as low as you can and check the wood shavings to see if they are light colored and dry or dark and wet. Drill about 1/2" to 3/4" into the transom. Good luck.