Re: 1972 Cobia 15 ft restore
Lets break this down so it's easier to read, follow & answer:
I pulled the center piece of the floor out today. Looks like PO replaced the 2x4s between the stringers. Looks like he did a good job of not ruining the fiberglass. He did not reglass the 2x4s down. He put screws into the old fiberglass matting. I will get pictures tomorrow. I did find a plug in the bilge area when I cleaned the debris out.
W/out pix, it will only be speculation, but I'll give it a shot:
You removed 1 piece of the DECK (floor) plywood, that ran from gunwale to gunwale (boat sides) across the beam (width) of the boat, probably from about the helm (steering wheel/console) back towards the transom, roughly as it looks cut in this pix:
When I pick up the plywood to repair the floor, how much resin should I put on the bottom side? How long should it cure before I screw it down? It is about 32 in wide by 84 in long.
You should mix as much polyester resin as is necessary to coat the plywood once, allow it to tack off, and mix another slightly larger amount & reapply resin to the tacky surface of the coated plywood, and fully wet out a layer of CSM. Polyester resin w/ out the CSM is very brittle, and offers little substanative value against water & no strength.
This is a
free downloadable, that gives rough estimates of poly resin usage w/ CSM & 1708
I still have the 135 hp Mercury. It needs a stator. I had it up for $200 but did not get any replies. If I were to replace the stator, would the 15 foot tri hull be able to handle it without any transom upgrades? I would not go full throttle. Trim tag says it is rated for 70 hp.
If you are asking if a 15' boat rated for a 70hp max is capable of handling a 135hp Merc, I think there is little left for me to suggest as a course of action, as it would seem your choice of user name is more then accurate.
Do you know what that Merc weighs, or the amount of thrust it's capable of, let alone what the gross overpower, by nearly 2X the rated hp, that motor provides? When it goes sideways, you can't just pull over & let the people unfortunate enough to be aboard, off at the nearest curb.
How do I choose a bilge pump? There is 1 installed but there is not a gph or other size rating on it. It does run if I wire it to the battery but it appears to be in bad shape. I really would not know as this is my first boat.
Try
here for bilge pump info