Foam stringers delamenated from hull.. what to do?

[stephenspann27]

I have a 1998 Sunbird Fish and Ski 190. I bought the hull for $900. I put an 1978 Mercury 140hp TOP motor on it that I had from another boat. After trailer work, new upholstery and lots of motor parts I now have like $4,500 into this thing. That is with doing all the work myself, except for the upholstery. I knew I had something going on in the ski locker area when I bought the boat, but I thought the the design was a wood stringer, with foam along side it, and the foam had detached from the hull. I had been putting off investigating the issues because of all the other problems I've had with the setup. Yesterday I pulled the ski locker hatch while underway and saw how much the hull was moving and it shocked me. It was wipping up with every little ripple in the water. I thought I better stop putting it off and fix it. I had had a fiberglass guy look at the bout when I first bough it. I was showing him some stress cracks in the port side chine, and he said the stringer was probably detached in that area. It turns out he was right. What shocked me though, is as i started chipping away the foam I found that the entire stringer was foam. I'm not sure how I am going to fix this. There is no way i am decaping this hull. I was thinking about getting all the foam out I can, grind everything down, and use some form boats to pour in sea cast stringers. I feel like I opened up a can of worms by chipping all this foam out, but the "stringer' was doing nothing in this area, it was no longer tied into the hull. Let me know how you guys think I should approach the repair.


Foam stringer by stephenspann27, on Flickr


Foam stringer by stephenspann27, on Flickr

 

[jigngrub]

I'd start cutting decking out and check everything below deck.

Sea Cast is good, expensive... but good. Cast the stringers back in and check your transom while you're at it.

 

[stephenspann27]

I can't cut the floor, because it is part of the cap. It will look like crap if I try to splice it back in. I think I'm going just going get all the foam out on the side with the bad stringer, build some form boards and pour sea cast in. Unless you guys have any other ideas. I might leave the port side alone, it had some movement but it hasn't detached yet.

 

[jigngrub]

Fix it any way you want, it's your boat.

I personally wouldn't trust the rest of the below deck structure after something like that has happened, and who knows what else has come loose under there since it has been being operated like that for a while.

It would be a real pisser for me to have all that time and money tied up in that boat and keep having to go back and fix a little here and there every time something comes loose.

With a little research in this forum you can see and learn how to blend in fiberglass repairs so they aren't even noticeable.

 

[stephenspann27]

With the way the floor is designed I can poke my head into various compartments and see the full length of the stringers on both sides. This appears to be the only one with a problem. Unfortunately there is the port side console above this problem area, so i would have to cut it loose from the floor. I think if I get creative I can repair with with the floor/cap in place.

 

[Scott Danforth]

I would pull the rub rail and uncap it.

 

[stephenspann27]

That would involve building a cradle right?

 

[jigngrub]

That would involve building a cradle right?

You don't have to cradle it, you can add additional support to it while it's on the trailer.

Take a look at SpitandDirt's Sunbird thread:
http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...-sl-complete-gutting-and-resto-pics-and-video