Re: Woodless stringers?
your stringer fiberglass thickness looks to thin for any support . i would redo with wood and glass them in . how thick is the glass about half way up the hieght of stringer.
Sorry, but that's a very backward way to assess strength "it doesn't look strong"?. If the boat hasn't fallen apart until now, you can assume it did in fact have enough strength to work just fine.
In fact, from the look of things the deck, hull and the "stringers" (the term doesn't really apply here) formed a torsion box, essentially a very strong structure as the base of the boat. I wouldn't be surprised if it was twice as strong and stiff as a boat of the same age with wooden stringers.
Don't replace them unless they're deteriorated... you'd just make the boat heavier and prone to rot without need.
First I'd check to see if the deck is rotted anywhere... it's a layer of plywood under glass on top there, so it might be wet. If it's not, great, if it is, you'll have to pull it out without doing too much damage to the stringers... if you need to do that I'd recommend cutting parallel to the keel, in the gaps between the spots where the stringer meets the deck.
Once you have the deck off, do whatever work needs doing under decks, then attach a waterproofed cleat to the top edge of each stringer (basically a 1x2 board you glue in place so its height matches the edge) so you have a wider surface to glue onto. Then epoxy (not poly) the new deck onto the stringers/cleats. If you really want to you can screw the deck down, but you still need the cleat to screw into.
If you can get by with repairing the existing hole you made, what you probably need to do is "cast" some new stringer extensions on a flat mold, like a waxed piece of MDF. Just lay up some flat fiberglass pieces on the MDF with poly resin, mat and cloth.
You do this to make some fiberglass pieces the same height as the stringers and long enough to reach the transom with at least 9 inches of overlap onto the existing stringers. Essentially you make a few stringer pieces. You could even re-use the old ones if they're not completely destroyed, just plan on overlapping the joints at both ends heavily.
Finish your transom, then epoxy them into place so they overlap the existing stringers and reach the transom. Make sure you tab them to the transom.
Then install a new deck section as above, and overlap the joint with the existing deck.
You'll be back to having an extremely strong, light, and stiff boat, and the only thing that can rot is the deck (and transom).
Cool design.
Erik
I was hoping to keep an eye out for my next money pit and wanted something with the same stringer design.
