Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

[bdblazer1978]

I started my rebuild by doing a lot of reading on this and another site. I've pulled all the old wood and have started to replace the stringers in my cuddy. The other sites how to shows the strings being bedded in a epoxy putty and then fiberglassed to the hull using tape. That's what I did. Coated the stringer with two coats of epoxy, put them in the putty, filleted, then used three offset pieces of tape. Does everything sound ok so far? Overkill? I thought that was all I needed to do before putting the wood deck down, however looking at several posts, it sounds like I still need to cover the upper half of the stringers with FG?

I'm about to start the main part of the boat and don't want to screw it up.

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Yep, IMHO I think you are! Check out this thread for the CORRECT way to install Stringers.

http://forums.iboats.com/showthread.php?t=287390&page=3&highlight=stringer+replacement

I'm afraid that if you do NOT do it right the stress of the waves and the wakes beating on the hull MIGHT cause the stringers to break free from the hull if they are ONLY tabbed in like you have them now.

I'm just sayin...

 

[sasto]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Woodonglass...wouldn't it be safe to lay-up some multi layerd biaxil overlapping the tabbing?

 

[drewpster]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Blazer, Did you use epoxy for everything? How far out did you extend (hat) the tabbing to the hull? Sounds fine to me, but a few pics would help. I would go ahead and cap the stringers to make them watertight and for the added strength.

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Blazer, Did you use epoxy for everything? How far out did you extend (hat) the tabbing to the hull? Sounds fine to me, but a few pics would help. I would go ahead and cap the stringers to make them watertight and for the added strength.

I agree with glassing the whole stringer..

Also..when you mentioned using glass tape..how wide did you use ?

How much tabbing is On the Hull ? 3" - 4" - 8" ??

Pics would be wonderbar

Oh..one other thing..if the top of the stringer is not prepped right your wasteing your time lapping it. ( You Will get a big Air void up there that will serve no purpose aside from seeing how well your grinding skills are ).

YD.

 

[bdblazer1978]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Thanks for the help. Pics will have to wait till this weekend. The boat is in storage and I only have access to it on the weekends.

When I removed the old stringers I cut them out leaving about 1/4" of the old FG in place. The wood was so rotten/wet that it came right out. I then made the new stringers to fit inside the old FG. I slightly sanded the old FG beside the stringer about 6 inches out, but didn't remove it. Placed putty into the old stringer location, put the new stringer in, and tabbed it out. The tape I used is 6" wide. My first layer was about 4" on the boat on the old FG and 2" on the stringer. I then went 3"x3", with the final layer 2"x4". I've used epoxy for everything, since my understanding was it would adhere to the old FG. My thinking was I wouldn't have to grind out all the old FG this way.

Again any help is appreciated, I'd rather undo the cuddy and do it right, then have to re-do it again in a couple years.

Bill

 

[Woodonglass]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

How Tall are your stringers? If they are more than 8" tall then based on your last post, I am inclined to stay with my previous thoughts and lean towards encasing the stringers totally in glass. The amount of tabbing you have indicated would NOT be enough for me but maybe it's just me. Let's see what the others say. But I sometimes have a tendency to OVERKILL things.
I'm with sasto, i would overlay with 1708 to ENSURE that they were secure.

I'm just sayin...

 

[produceguy]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Shouldnt he remove all the old glass. I would think placing the new stringers in old glass might cause voids and air pockets even if he glasses over it. I would definitly cover the entire stringer in glass and at least 3 inches on either side.

 

[Greg Mrozinski]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Shouldnt he remove all the old glass. I would think placing the new stringers in old glass might cause voids and air pockets even if he glasses over it.

Not necessarily. As long as it is prepped correctly then there should be no problem. Many folks here have left a little edge of the stringer glass to use as a guide for the new stringer. You just have to make sure everything is clean and flush as possible.

BD - Can you give us some more info on your boat? Size? Year? Motor? What glass tape did you use? CSM? 1708? Other cloth? If you only used CSM then add a layer of 1708 fully covering the stringer sides down onto the hull at least 6" and you should be golden. If you used 1708 tape then just cover the rest of the stringer with a little CSM and epoxy resin and you will be fine. Just remember, the original manufacturer probably only used a little CSM and woven roven. So you are better than original.

 

[oops!]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

yeah.....if he only left a 1/4 inch lip to seat the stringer in ....and bedded with epoxy....he will be fine.

but if the old glass goes up 6 inches up the stringer and he glass over the old stuff......it is wrong.....will still work with epoxy.....but wrong and a waist of glass

 

[bdblazer1978]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

To answer some of the question. I have a 1990 Osprey, Model 2400, 24' long. I can't find anything on the web about this boat, so any help there would also be great. I found info about Osprey boats but they aren't the same design as this one. It is a cuddy and has a Mercruiser V8 I/O.

The stringer in the cuddy is only ~6" tall, so at the fore end I covered to the top, the aft end has ~2 inches of the sides still exposed. The fiberglass on the hull of the boat between the stringers seemed good, so that was another reason I didn't grind it all out. The stingers in the main part of the boat are ~18" tall and have not been cut/installed yet, so that's why I want to make sure I'm still ok with the way that I'm installing them.

Before installing the stringer in the cuddy, I sanded the old fiberglass, to help remove any surface stuff, vacuumed up all the dust and then wiped it down with a damp sponge using water. I then made a template out of 3/4" Styrofoam and used that to cut the wood stringer. The wood stringer was then coated with 2 coats of epoxy, no glass. When that was dry I sanded it to make sure that I would get a good bond. So the cuddy area sat for about 2 weeks after I finished my prep work until I installed the new stringer. I used a Biaxial Tape 45/45 12 oz., no mat, 6 in wide to tab in the stringer. Offsetting the tape ~1" working my way up the stringer. So currently the top of the stringer and part of the side is not covered with glass.

I got the boat for free, so if I screwed up the cuddy and have to rip it out, I won't be happy, but I'm a hole lot happier knowing that it was done right and that I don't have to worry about the safety of my family.

Here are a couple pics of the boat. I'm going to work on it this weekend so I can get more pics at that time. I'll post what the cuddy looks like this weekend.

Thanks for your help and advice.

 

[bdblazer1978]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Just found an old photo album. Here are a few pics of my work in the cuddy.

 

[produceguy]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

bb78, cant see your pics.

 

[bdblazer1978]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

Not sure what happened. When I load this page on my desktop they are there, but when I tried it on the laptop no good. I'll try as attachments.

 

[bdblazer1978]

Re: Stringer replacment, am I about to screw up?

More pics