ihopeitfloats
Cadet
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2012
- Messages
- 14
Hello. I'm a short-term lurker and first-time poster. I just bought my first boat, which is being transported to my driveway this weekend. It's a 27-foot Sportcraft C-Eagle which I got for a low price on Craigslist, and I couldn't refuse. I am hoping I don't regret it.
There're a couple of places in the floor that are soft and I'd thought I'd be ambitious and rip up the whole deck and replace it, but after reading some of the posts in these forums it seems as if that's the bare minimum I'd get away with and not a very likely scenario at that. After spending a few hours reading about stringers, foam, epoxy, fiberglass, rotten foam and resin, I feel a lot more confused than educated.
I will be ripping up the floor in a couple of weeks (My first "boat work weekend" is November 10/11) but am hoping to get a working idea of what's under the deck beforehand. I have searched for "Sportcraft" here but haven't found my boat's model or year...does anyone have any knowledge of what the inside of the hull of this boat looks like?
Best case scenario has me laying down a new plywood deck with double-coat epoxy on all sides (another poster talked about doing one full coat, then a second coat on the bottom of plywood, then laying down plywood and screwing it down, then a second/last coat on the top to seal screws...that sounded good to me). I guess I'm trying to figure out what the worst-case scenario could be...rotten stringers? If so, how do I fix that? I'm handy and not easily daunted (read: dumb enough to think I can do this with no experience), but I'd like to have some supplies ready (or at least an accurate list of stuff I can go buy if it's heartache & sorrow down inside the hull).
One other question, and I apologize if it's a dumb one: what do I do about foam? It seems from what I've read that factory foam seems to be blown in or somehow attached to stuff down under the floorline, but I was amazed to see that at least one poster had taken care of his boat's foam by laying a bunch of pool noodles down there. Assuming whatever original foam I have down in the hull is rotten and/or waterlogged, what kind of foam do I get and how do I install it? Can I get away with noodles?
Oh, and one last question (and I mean it this time): I was thinking about using marine plywood, but have read some cons about it (way too expensive, doesn't absorb epoxy well). Also, I thought I could find it easily (I Googled it and one of the first responses was from the most popular home supply store in the country...I'm too much a newbie to risk naming the store for fear of somehow offending the Forum Rules, but it's the one with the orange sign. However, when I went to the orange-sign store I was told that they don't carry it and that "Google lied." Then I went to a popular marine supply website and found that they only carry small pieces of it and that they were OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. So...is marine plywood a good choice and if so, can I find it in large-ish sheets for less than a million dollars, and can anyone tell me where without offending the no-pushing-any-businesses forum rule?
Let me close by saying I am blown away by the willingness of everyone to help each other out, the depth of the posts and responses here, and the great DIY can-do vibe. I do promise that I will take lots of pictures and report back on what I found and what works and doesn't work.
Thanks for any pointers, warnings or cautionary tales.
IHopeItFloats
Montauk, NY
There're a couple of places in the floor that are soft and I'd thought I'd be ambitious and rip up the whole deck and replace it, but after reading some of the posts in these forums it seems as if that's the bare minimum I'd get away with and not a very likely scenario at that. After spending a few hours reading about stringers, foam, epoxy, fiberglass, rotten foam and resin, I feel a lot more confused than educated.
I will be ripping up the floor in a couple of weeks (My first "boat work weekend" is November 10/11) but am hoping to get a working idea of what's under the deck beforehand. I have searched for "Sportcraft" here but haven't found my boat's model or year...does anyone have any knowledge of what the inside of the hull of this boat looks like?
Best case scenario has me laying down a new plywood deck with double-coat epoxy on all sides (another poster talked about doing one full coat, then a second coat on the bottom of plywood, then laying down plywood and screwing it down, then a second/last coat on the top to seal screws...that sounded good to me). I guess I'm trying to figure out what the worst-case scenario could be...rotten stringers? If so, how do I fix that? I'm handy and not easily daunted (read: dumb enough to think I can do this with no experience), but I'd like to have some supplies ready (or at least an accurate list of stuff I can go buy if it's heartache & sorrow down inside the hull).
One other question, and I apologize if it's a dumb one: what do I do about foam? It seems from what I've read that factory foam seems to be blown in or somehow attached to stuff down under the floorline, but I was amazed to see that at least one poster had taken care of his boat's foam by laying a bunch of pool noodles down there. Assuming whatever original foam I have down in the hull is rotten and/or waterlogged, what kind of foam do I get and how do I install it? Can I get away with noodles?
Oh, and one last question (and I mean it this time): I was thinking about using marine plywood, but have read some cons about it (way too expensive, doesn't absorb epoxy well). Also, I thought I could find it easily (I Googled it and one of the first responses was from the most popular home supply store in the country...I'm too much a newbie to risk naming the store for fear of somehow offending the Forum Rules, but it's the one with the orange sign. However, when I went to the orange-sign store I was told that they don't carry it and that "Google lied." Then I went to a popular marine supply website and found that they only carry small pieces of it and that they were OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive. So...is marine plywood a good choice and if so, can I find it in large-ish sheets for less than a million dollars, and can anyone tell me where without offending the no-pushing-any-businesses forum rule?
Let me close by saying I am blown away by the willingness of everyone to help each other out, the depth of the posts and responses here, and the great DIY can-do vibe. I do promise that I will take lots of pictures and report back on what I found and what works and doesn't work.
Thanks for any pointers, warnings or cautionary tales.
IHopeItFloats
Montauk, NY
