I bought a used 1986 21' cuddy cabin, replacing stringer

[leonhuang]

I bought a used 1986 21' cuddy cabin, replacing stringer. Need your help please.

Let me send some pictures first. The first one is the cuddy cabin, carpet removed. second one is with carpet. I decide not to use carpet at all on this boat. will consider fibergalss and then paint,any suggestions?

I saw lots of argues about plywood and real wood in this forum. But it seems to me that they are all the same, bad, if you don't seal it carefully. It has both plywood and real wood stringers. They all rot like soil. see pictures below.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: I bought a used 1986 21' cuddy cabin, replacing stringer

Your best bet is to do a search here on "rotten stringers", you'll have weeks worth of reading. After that many of your questions will have been answered and you'll have a whole new set more specific to your project.

 

[leonhuang]

Re: I bought a used 1986 21' cuddy cabin, replacing stringer

On the same time, i will paint the wood frame of the window, door and 4 lockers. will redo cushions in the cabin and on the back bench.

 

[leonhuang]

Re: I bought a used 1986 21' cuddy cabin, replacing stringer

I started with removing all seats, then removed the cover of the fuel tank, cut hoses connectted to the fuel tank. Luckly enough, I don;t have much gas left in the tank, so ithe aluminum gas tank is easily removed and placed besides my garage wall.

It has toally 4 stringers on this boat, 2 on each side of the gas tank. I decided to work on one side first, since i am a greenhand on boat

The problem is both 2 stringers are underneath the fiberglass floor, see the above picture i draw by hand. To remove and place new stringers, i either have to cut and remove the fiberglass floor or i have to remove the whole cap. Since i have limited space (on my driveway) and no lifting crane, i decided to go with the easier way, cut the floor off. I will put it back and glue it to the subfloor later on after i place new stringers and subfloor. I know it's a tradeoff, but seems i don't have any better choice...



some pictures here:

 

[leonhuang]

Re: I bought a used 1986 21' cuddy cabin, replacing stringer

I went to the toronto downtown West Marine store today, to check for epoxy resin and fiberglass mat and cloth. They only carry West System Epoxy resin. Pretty expensive.

Here is what i got for the size and price:

Fiberglass cloth: 6 oz(170g),
38"x90", $52.99 96.5cm x 228.6cm
8"x10 yard tape, $38.99 15.2cm x 910cm
38" wide roll, $18.49/yard 96.5cm x 91cm

Fiberglass mat:
3/4 oz, 38"x60" $33.99 96.5cm x 152.4cm
1.5 oz, 38"x90" $52.99 96.5cm x 228.6cm

West System Epoxy

resin: 105 3.74L $109.99
Hardener: 206 $42.99