95 Sea Ray 230 Sundancer stringer repair

[gmach]

Hello all,
I would like to share my disappointing story and get some of your thoughts. I bought this boat last year. When I bought it, I noticed the owner had replaced the cockpit seats with some after market back to back louge seats; none of the screws were bedded and none of the old seat holes were plugged. I knew I would have to re-core the mid birth ceiling where the seats sat on. I figured I could takle that easy enough. Well that changed today; the can of worms has been opened and the water from the ceiling leak has turned into stringer rot. I have dug out all of the rotted stringer so far and plan to scarf in new stringer and deck sections with half inch marine grade plywood. I am a little confused by the method Sea Ray used to splice the original stringer. They made a long taper joint in the stringer and used a butt block to connect the two, but the stringer terminates about 16 inches away at a bulkhead. I would like to glue in the new stringer at that termination and scarf in at the other end. Could I scarf in over Sea Ray's joint or should I just use Sea Ray's joint method to make the splice? A scarf would be about a 6 inch joint and a Sea Ray splice joint would be about 48 inches long with the the removal of another bulkhead.

 

[Scott Danforth]

First, welcome aboard

Next, searays are not the boat they once were

Boats are designed with a 15 year design life. Your boat is 31 years old

Plan on a full restoration

All the information you will need is found here. https://forums.iboats.com/threads/how-tos-and-other-great-information.283508/

Specifically this thread which also happens to be a 1995 searay. https://forums.iboats.com/threads/1995-sea-ray-220-signature-deck-and-stringer-restoration.495449/

 

[gmach]

Thank you, by full restoration do you mean replace the whole stringer?

 

[Scott Danforth]

Stringers, transom, flotation foam

 

[gmach]

In my younger days i would certainly agree with that sentiment. I would go gung-ho with a chain saw and demo bar and before you know it; I'd be standing in a pile of lumber scrap thinking what have I done! The years of back breaking work and forever projects have humbled me sir. I have become more pragmatic these days which has saved me a load of time and money. If the rest of the hull is in good shape and the water intrusion (which was owner induced) only affected this small area was fixed I believe this boat could outlive me, if properly maintained.

 

[redneck joe]

Welcome to the forum, and I agree with the approach to boats as we age. I just completed my last one, or so I told myself (and my wife).

If you can tell that is all, great otherwise rot starts low and moves from the transom forward and up to the floor.

 

[MikeSchinlaub]

Drill some test holes in easy access areas to look for more rot first.

 

[gmach]

Well I went around the rest of the boat with a ball peen hammer and tap tested instead. The rest of the stringers, deck, and transom sounded great. I did find out my exhaust manifold is cracked during the inspection though.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Tap method doesn't work until long after the wood is wet, rotten, and eaten by insects, then dries out leaving a void

Chuck up a 5/16" drill bit and do some test drills in the bilge just above the hull.

Drill 2" above the hull and 3/4" deep

If the shavings are light, dry, and smell like fresh cut wood, just fill the hole with epoxy like marine tex

If the shavings are dark, wet, and smell of mulch, fire up the saws

 

[tpenfield]

I had rot in both of my Formula boats (a 242 and a 330). It is a 1990's (and earlier) thing across most of the boat brands.

First thing to do would be to determine the extent of moisture and rot. I know that you have exposed some of the stringer, but the issues tend to go further than you initially think, as indicated in some of the posts so far.

On my Formula 242, I was able to scarf a new section of stringer in and not rip the entire boat apart. (I have a thread here on iBoats . . . somewhere)

Get yourself one of those contact moisture meters, they are about $50. Since the fiberglass coating on the stringers seems to be minimal, you should easily be able to get the meter in contact with the wood core of the stringers and bulkheads.

 

[redneck joe]

The last two posts are very good advice.

 

[Pmt133]

On the moisture meter, if you have a known "dry" piece of wood around, you can use that to set your zero for the meter too... they almost never read zero when it's dry in my experience. In my case 15% was the number fir dry and I considered anything 10% above that gone. (It was way above that. I stopped messing with the meter when the transom cutout was mush... that meant everything had to come out regardless in my case.)

 

[gmach]

I took some core samples as advised. The stringer samples all came out dry fresh wood. I found wet wood in the transom about an inch from the bottom under the key hole. What a sickening feeling.

 

[Scott Danforth]

We have all been there

 

[Pmt133]

I went in knowing I needed to do it and it was still a gut punch.the realization you can't not do everything over is rough.

 

[redneck joe]

I found my water when installing trim tabs. The wood was good, just wet. A couple years later I did the deed, payting someone. Cash was 1200 or the transom and engine stringers and 600 for the motor pull. About 10 years ago. Not a project I would tackle.

 

[gmach]

Well.... I guess that transom is coming out, and the stringers while I'm at it.

 

[Pmt133]

If you're going full in. You can leave a little bit of the transom just glass around the drain. That way any small puddle isn't always in contact with the wood should there be a leak.

 

[flashback]

Just look at it this way , I've had a family of tree rats tear up my boat. All winter they decided to eat wiring and vinyl.

 

[Scott Danforth]

Look at the links in post #2