Alternative Products for stringers

[tubularstudios]

So I am a total newbie to the who forum thing. (My wife not so much) But we have a 66 Starcraft Aarow. when we purchased it the back of the decking was a little spongy. So after a year of not being able to touch it. today I cut a major piece of the deck off to expose the stringers. some of the fiberglass weave has deteriorated to nothing as it wraps around the stringers and the stringers are completely saturated with water. and only appear to be a 1x1 size piece of wood running from fore to aft. and the stringers running from port to starboard are a 1x2" all cut cleanly but not touching the hull itself.

I know all needs to be replaced -------> Point My wife and I would like to try to replace the stringers with a composite decking(made from recycled plastic bottles, and bags). Would this be to weak? Should we go with pressure treated wood? Or go back to something like an aspen wood?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[sphelps]

Fiberglass will probably not stick to the composite decking ,Pressure treated is not recommended either ..,Post up some pics of what you have so we can see what you see ...
Oh almost forgot .. Welcome aboard !! :welcome:

 

[Scott Danforth]

welcome aboard. first off, post pics. second. the stickies at the top of the forums help alot. specifically read thru the entire thread of #14 http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...r/295740-how-to-s-and-other-great-information

if you properly repair the boat using simple exterior grade plywood, and take care of the boat (keep it covered, dry, etc), it will last long enough for your great great grand children to enjoy.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Welcome to Iboats TS

Sure..I dont see why not. Those seem more like stiffeners than stringers. As long as you put enough glass over them.

Hey..why not make the deck out of the same material too..that would be sweet to have some kind of cherry walnut decking

 

[ondarvr]

Here is the catch 22 on stringer core material.

Wood is strong, light, easy to work with, low in cost, and readily avalible, but over time it can rot if it gets wet. There are many other materials that can work well and don't rot, but they are frequently much more expensive, harder to find, harder to work with and not as strong.

You can overcome the not as strong aspect by using more glass over the core material, which is fine. What you are doing is using the core as just a shape to glass over, the glass is applied thick enough to carry the entire load. You end up spending more time, money and effort for a product that really only gets used as a shape, which is what the plastic deck boards would be. They also have the additional downside of being very low in strength and the resin not being able to bond to them.

If you use plywood, and use a bit more glass over it like you would with most other cores, you get all the benefits of the wood, but its far less likely to rot because it has been encapsulated much better.

I prefer hollow stringers, but they can be a little more difficult to construct.

 

[tubularstudios]

I work for Dish Network as a technician. When I started the post it was dark out(Taking a pic at midnight kinda sucks.) So I took a few while heading out the door this morning. I can't get them to upload is there a specific format they need to be in? From just letting it sit overnight and open it dried out alot, but there is still quite a bit of moisture in the wood. I'm wondering if I could reglass to reinforce the existing or get the wood out and seacast it(like you would with the transom)?

Pictures to follow once I figure out how to post them

 

[ondarvr]

Use photo bucket to down load pics.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

I'm wondering if I could reglass to reinforce the existing or get the wood out and seacast it(like you would with the transom)?

You Could I guess..but I think your over thinking this . By the time you got done dinking around pulling dead tree flesh out..die grinding to clean..clean..mix/pour..clean some more..Well lets just say you would have been better off just grabbin your handy saw zaw and a grinder. Slappin some wood in a cozy bed of PB..then mopping some fiberglass and resin on. Hell, you would be done and drinking long island ice teas by the time you got your grinding done all while trying to save a few bumps in your boat lol. ( yes..you would still have to grind to prep for glass if you were going to do a lay-over ).

So..get suit up..get going and stop trying to reinvent the bloomin' grinding wheel here

 

[tubularstudios]

It took me forever to remember my photobucket info. But I got in and I'm currently uploading them I removed a lot more(80%) of the deck. All of it was soaked. looking forward to your input!

 

[tubularstudios]

Hopefully this will work.

http://s1066.photobucket.com/user/tubularstudios/slideshow/Boat%20Restoration

 

[Yacht Dr.]

" Common Bob! Its an hour till quitin time! Get a move on!!"

Sorry..cant get my head to think beyond this point right now. I mean..if this was one of Toneeeses' monthly comics..

..

Wow..thats a Lot of cut'n and grind'n..and Glassin'n lol. Do you have any over all pics of the boat? There Might be a way for us to cut down on all those stringers..but we need some over all pics.
Oh..and I Retract my last post about you being done by now

 

[sphelps]

Good lord ! Did I count 7 stringers and bulkheads ? :lol:
Ya got your work cut out for you which ever way you go ....

 

[ondarvr]

Boats from that era aren't known for attention to detail when it comes to the fiberglass work below deck, but this may be the worst one I've ever seen.

 

[tubularstudios]

Because it's been less than stellar conditions out the boat has been covered up. If it's nicer out tonight I'll shoot a few photos of the entire boat.

 

[tubularstudios]

I just uploaded pictures of the overall boat on the trailer(not a pretty trailer, but it came with it). check out the photobucket link in my previous post.

 

[sphelps]

Just post your pics by going to your library . Click on the pic you want to post then click the IMG code over on the right sidebar .. It will flash copied in yellow . Then go back to your post right click and paste it in where you want it . Like this ..

The slide show is kinda hard to follow ...
Cool boat btw ! Love the jetsons anchor light !

 

[Scott Danforth]

nice lookin' merc on the back of that. If it were mine, I would measure the existing stringers, take a bunch of pics. then fire up the multi-tool or put a diamond cut-off blade in the 4.5" grinder and nip off all the stringers at the hull. then fire up the grinder with 24 grit and take it down to clean fiberglass. then lay in some new stringers and glass in place.

then I would tab in the new sole and fill the voids with 2 oz foam.

while it seams like daunting work, most of the roving is letting loose.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Scott has you covered. Small changes could include using a saw-zaw with a long blade to zip them things out. And I would use 2 LB foam instead of 2 oz

Joking aside..just get the things out however. Sometimes a crowbar and hammer will do the job. Constantly think of better/faster ways to get the job done.

Getting it prepped for new stringers is gonna be the hardest part. Then there is all that glass..I mean thats a Lot of glass and resin. Good news is that it looks like a few of them got thrown in for floor support. Not like you have a 454 inboard sitting there. You dont have to build it exactly the way it was. Use your judgement and layout a stringer plan. You also dont need any measurements. Just tape some string from side to side and fwd/aft where your putting your stringers/bulks in. Measure the string down and subtract the thickness of the deck ( Sole as Scott put it ). You dont Have to glass wrap over the tops if you dont want to..but if you do then subtract a little more for that ( 3/16" ).

On a side note about your stringer pics. Yes they look nasty and half baked. But in reality its just the way they decided to go when putting down the ply decking. I would imagine that they just wet out some Woving Roving squares and laid in right before the deck went down. In the thinking that the glass would bond the wood to the stringers at those points. Did you have any screws in your deck? If not..then I think I would be correct in why they did what they did.

 

[tubularstudios]

Yacht dr. There were essentially 1.5 inch roofing nails the secured the deck to the bulkheads. Most being so rusted out that they were a 1/16" when I pulled them out. But when they were first set in there they were 1/8" nails. I spent the better part of hr and a half cutting out fiberglass.

 

[tubularstudios]

Side question for Scott. When you mentioned taking it to clean fiberglass. I'm afraid of damaging the hull. How thick would the hull typically be?

I've got no problem taking the variable speed angle grinder with a sanding disk to it but I'm worried I'd go through the hull. Or damage it.