21' 1984 Mark Twain Escape 210. Full forward cabin. Small aft bunk. Engine is accessed through a hatch in the floor of the deck.
Please keep in mind I know nothing about the structure of boats or how their built. So please forgive me if I misspeak.
We bought this boat at the end of last summer. Everything seemed to be on the up and up, it was dirty, but it ran good and the few spot tests I did of the transom seemed good. The PO was an old man who had used it for fishing on the great lakes and never had a problem with it.
We had a short stint near the end of the season taking it out on the water and then we winterized it and didn't get back at it until spring.
Today while I was cleaning up the engine I noticed that the two stringers, or what appear to be stringers are completely rotted out. I could poke a screwdriver through them easily. See the picture below showing starboard side of the engine bay. Whats strange is these seem to be just plain plywood, with a thin layer of fiberglass that goes about 3/4 of the way to the top of the stringer and then its just plain painted wood. The top end of the "stringer' isn't coated in fiberglass and neither is the joint where it connects to the plywood platform laid across it. Maybe they just delaminated over the years and now the joint just looks like it was never there?
Whats strange is the mounts around the motor and the cradle all seem solid and its not really even attached to this stringer except for the light bit of fiberglass coming up 3/4 of the stringer.
Now for the rest of the structure of the boat, look at the second photo and my crude diagram
. The red in the digram indicates how far I've been able to trace the rot. The side profile gives you a reference for the deck and cabin setup. The boat is basically two levels, split at almost the halfway point of the boat. The deck where you steer the boat is at the stern(obviously) and thats where the rot is found. But the "stringers" with the rot only run under the deck area to where the stairs enter the cabin and then the floor drops another 1ft down to another structure, which is solid as far as I can tell.
I guess what I'm wondering is: are these actually stringers or just some sort of wood box to support the platform where all the pumps, black water tank, batteries etc. go? If they are stringers, I'm basically screwed, right?
I'm worried the merc 260 in this thing is just going to tear off the back of the boat and we'll be swimming home.
Please keep in mind I know nothing about the structure of boats or how their built. So please forgive me if I misspeak.
We bought this boat at the end of last summer. Everything seemed to be on the up and up, it was dirty, but it ran good and the few spot tests I did of the transom seemed good. The PO was an old man who had used it for fishing on the great lakes and never had a problem with it.
We had a short stint near the end of the season taking it out on the water and then we winterized it and didn't get back at it until spring.
Today while I was cleaning up the engine I noticed that the two stringers, or what appear to be stringers are completely rotted out. I could poke a screwdriver through them easily. See the picture below showing starboard side of the engine bay. Whats strange is these seem to be just plain plywood, with a thin layer of fiberglass that goes about 3/4 of the way to the top of the stringer and then its just plain painted wood. The top end of the "stringer' isn't coated in fiberglass and neither is the joint where it connects to the plywood platform laid across it. Maybe they just delaminated over the years and now the joint just looks like it was never there?
Whats strange is the mounts around the motor and the cradle all seem solid and its not really even attached to this stringer except for the light bit of fiberglass coming up 3/4 of the stringer.
Now for the rest of the structure of the boat, look at the second photo and my crude diagram
. The red in the digram indicates how far I've been able to trace the rot. The side profile gives you a reference for the deck and cabin setup. The boat is basically two levels, split at almost the halfway point of the boat. The deck where you steer the boat is at the stern(obviously) and thats where the rot is found. But the "stringers" with the rot only run under the deck area to where the stairs enter the cabin and then the floor drops another 1ft down to another structure, which is solid as far as I can tell.I guess what I'm wondering is: are these actually stringers or just some sort of wood box to support the platform where all the pumps, black water tank, batteries etc. go? If they are stringers, I'm basically screwed, right?
I'm worried the merc 260 in this thing is just going to tear off the back of the boat and we'll be swimming home.
