Repairing deck

[Rdebouck]

Hi everyone! I am replacing part of the deck floor in my boat. I just recently acquired it and not very knowledgeable yet. So please bear with me. I have a 1989 Ozark f166 trihull. The flooring by the drain is bad. I am replacing it but I can't figure out how to secure the plywood to the stringers. The stringers, I believe are figerglass. Any helpful tips or advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[alldodge]

For the most part just keep ripping it out. With a deck that bad, I would suspect the transom and stringers would also need replacing. If it does, then its a complete gut and rebuild.

 

[Chris1956]

Normally, after all the bad wood is out, and the waterlogged foam has been replaced, you would screw the new plywood deck to the stringers, with stainless screws and add fiberglass cloth/resin over the plywood.

I would recommend that all wood be covered with poly resin on all sides, and the deck be made of dry 1/2" pressure treated plywood.

That is the Readers Digest version....

 

[JASinIL2006]

Keep ripping stuff out until everything is dry, rot-free and solid. Expect the job to be much bigger than you're currently anticipating; that seems to generally happen.

Also, I personally would not replace any wood in your boat using pressure treated; wood that is properly encapsulated with fiberglass and take care of, will outlast you. Pressure treated wood has too many potential problems (e.g., fiberglass not adhering, interactions between metals - like screws - and the pressure treating chemicals). Using a good exterior grade plywood is safer and probably most typical in rebuilds.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Hi everyone! I am replacing part of the deck floor in my boat. I just recently acquired it and not very knowledgeable yet. So please bear with me. I have a 1989 Ozark f166 trihull. The flooring by the drain is bad. I am replacing it but I can't figure out how to secure the plywood to the stringers. The stringers, I believe are figerglass. Any helpful tips or advice is greatly appreciated.

Welcome aboard

the floor is the last thing to rot after the stringers and transom. so you are in for a full restoration

take a look at links 14, 15, 18, 2, 3, 4a, and 4b in the stickies in the restoration forum. https://forums.iboats.com/forum/boa...r/295740-how-to-s-and-other-great-information look at every picture, watch every video and read every post. the answers you seek are there.

 

[Rdebouck]

Thank you everyone for the advice. I ripped up all the old/ bad wood. There where 2 drains where the worst part was so I'm thinking that was an issue. The other wood is fine in the middle. When I pulled the bad wood I didn't find any screws or anything. I just found the stringers and foam. The foam will obviously be replaced as well. The stringers by the way it looks is actually part of the boat and not added. Being a fiberglass boat it looks like actually being part of the boat and not added, if that makes sense.

 

[Scott Danforth]

post a pic of the stringers. very few boats had engineered stringers in the 80's the typical construction is fiberglass over wood during the hull layup. hence the reason I suggest you read the links I suggested.

the floor is normally tabbed in after the hull is pulled from the mold, or simply part of the top cap and glued in place.

 

[JASinIL2006]

I Googled a thread (https://www.boatdesign.net/threads/90-ozark-deck-boat-rebuild.44026/) on the repair of a 1990 version of this boat on another web site, and it looks like the stringers are indeed wood under fiberglass. That means you really ought to drill test them while you have the floor opened up. No point in putting a new floor over rotten stringers.

 

[fishrdan]

I hate to say it, but those pictures bring back memories of my old 72 SeaSwirl Tri-Hull. Deck had a couple of "soft spots" so I started cutting, rotted deck and stringers, soaked foam, transom rotted. I didn't want to spend $1-2K into rebuilding that hull (pounds in heavy waves) or the time to properly rebuild it, so I hauled it down to the dump.

Funny/odd/bad part of the story, i had just completely rebuilt the engine and was about to install it back into the boat, but got the wild hair idea of repairing the deck before putting the engine back in... Hindsight, I shouldn't have rebuilt the engine and just cut my losses, hauled the whole thing down to the dump and found another boat in better condition. I would have been time and money ahead.

Not saying the boat isn't rebuildable, but it's going to take a lot of time and money to do it properly. And, I would make sure the engine/drive/outboard is in 100% running condition before diving into that project.

More to my 72 Seaswirl story. I bought it off my buddy when he needed $$$. He spent endless time and money cosmetically fixing the boat, paint, interior, trim, lights. Really nice looking boat, but on it's maiden voyage after his rebuild, the drive was puked. $1700 later....

 

[H20Rat]

I've got a couple of my own rebuilding horror stories to know those pictures all too well. Stringers are gone, transom is gone. The floor was the last thing to be affected.