Stringer assitance

[frankk]

Folks, I am doing a full stringer and bulkhead replacement on my boat. It is a 18 Hobo. I am calling the stringers the long 12' lengths and bulkheads the short boards in-between them, spaced every 14" and 46-1/2" length. I took out about 800lbs of soggy material in-between the bulkheads (in a waffle pattern). Now that I am down to the bare fiberglass, and all seems ok... I am seeing how the boat was made. The long stringers seemed to run from about 16" in front of the transom to the bow but.. after I got this far.. I see they are two (yes 2) pieces of wood 8', and the second one is 4' in length to make up a 12' total length. They are about 4" high by 1/2" thick. The long (assembled) 12' stringer is in a groove about 1-1/2" deep to keep them in place but the 46-1/2" bulkheads were just placed vertical with no groove in the hull. The bulkheads are spaced every 14" or so. So here is my question... should I make them say... every 12" rather then 14" to make a more stable floor? The second question is more direct. Now that I have the 8 or so bulkheads out.. the floor is more plyable because the stability is gone. Should I glass in the bulkheads first (not the area where it meets the stringers) to keep my stability in tact?

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Stringer assitance

Got a few pictures to post? It sure would help us see what you are seeing.

 

[Decker83]

Re: Stringer assitance

Hello Frankk and :welcome:

To answer your first question: Having the bulkhead at 12" spacing would help with the floor.. How ever it will also ad cost and more labor to do so.. It will mean more wood, fiber glass, and resin and weight to the boat.. For the amount of extra support it will give is a toss up to cost and weight..

For the second question: That would depend on your situation.. Are you able to build a cradle to support the hull.. Do you have room to do this..
How is the hull being supported now.. If it is on the trailer, and that is the only room you have then add more support to the trailer.

Most of us here on I-boats strip the hull and grind down to clean glass and then start the rebuild.. But the hull must be supported correctly.

Get up some pics so some of the real experts here can help..

Have a great weekend..

 

[frankk]

Re: Stringer assitance

OK, folks, here is my Blog / URL, be kind...
http://electronicinstrument.com/toocute.html

 

[kcassells]

Re: Stringer assitance

Hi Frank,
A blog is a great way to go but for me I am unable to respond to your issues. I suggest you keep to photo bucket or other presentations so the team can review and respond to your needs.

 

[kcassells]

Re: Stringer assitance

Hi again,
On another note I forgot to mention, your progress looks great! Keep on truckin! Pics, pics, pics!

 

[jbcurt00]

Re: Stringer assitance

You need to support the hull. If I remove your skeleton, it'll be difficult to keep your skin in shape w/ out a cradle to support it.

Bulkheads won't be substantial, even at 12" intervals, to support the hull longitudinally like stringers do that run fore & aft. And putting the bulkheads in 1st will only make installing stringers more difficult, IMO.

If 14" was sufficient for the structure of the boat originally, why add more material, cost, time & weight to the hull reducing the spacing to 12"

A blog is great, I hope you get lots of traffic, possibly from the links here, but I'd rather SEE pix here where I can see & reference them easily, attachments aren't much better. Put the pix IN your posts. Why make it MORE difficult for someone to help ya rebuild it?

Like this:

 

[frankk]

Re: Stringer assitance

OK, tried to get the picture on the support here but it had an issue with downloading... Maybe size related?

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Stringer assitance

Yea, you can either load the pictures to photobucket (or similar place) and then just use the URL option . . . or reduce the size of the pictures to about 640 x 480 and upload them. They should be less than 200KB to upload.

 

[frankk]

Re: Stringer assitance

Ah ok, so 200k pictures maximum, will keep that in mind for next week. On the support, I am using a combination of the trailer, and also some firewood criss-crossed like a square on both sides of the hull. Not pretty but works. I leveled the boat so the original floor was perfectly level so I can establish the levelness as it was originally built. Picking up supplies for next weekend, now to look into stringer wood. Seems like everything is based off of 4" material. Should I use marine plywood (maximum length is 8') and use the same for the 46-1/2" transom boards as well?