95 Sea Ray 230 Sundancer stringer repair

[tpenfield]

It's not too late to make this project an outboard conversion.

 

[gmach]

It's about a 2 1/2" rise towards the transom.

 

[gmach]

It's not too late to make this project an outboard conversion.

I thought about that too but, I bought a big ol swim platform to hang off the back though thats been sitting in the shipping crate this whole time. Plus this boat has a bad tendency to wander at low speed; do you think putting an outboard further out might make it worse?

 

[gmach]

Well it's been consistently in the 90's temperature wise here in California and so I have to work early in the morning or late in the evening...... until now.

 

[gmach]

Since the cabin is now air conditioned, I figured I would takle the rotten balsa core in the fore deck while enjoying the cool a/c.

 

[gmach]

I finally got around to glassing the transom. I really misjudged the radius I made for the steps on the transom. I figured a quater 1/4 inch round over would have worked but the 1708 did not agree and I spent a way to much time trying to get it stuck down and then watch it pop back up 15 minutes later. So instead of fighting it I just let it cure.

 

[gmach]

I ended up grinding out the delaminated corners and this time applying a generous fillet and laying down some new glass. The transom is 4 layers of 1708 and 5 layers of tabbing for a finished thickness of 2-1/4 inches and when I bang on the transom it has that beautiful solid high pitch ring!

 

[gmach]

Here I am fitting the stringers in place. The Coosa is really easy to work with maybe even easier than wood. Because it is a dense type of foam, it can be sanded and cut very fast. One big drawback I found with it though is the dust it generates. I find that it irritates the skin way worse than normal fiberglass and it can work its way through thin clothing like a t shirt easily. I'm assuming this is due to the fact that it's less dense than normal fiberglass and the dust it creates is more coarse (bigger glass slivers).

 

[tpenfield]

Looks good. Keep in mind that Coosa is not as strong as plywood, so you will want to double up on the glassing of those stringers.

 

[alldodge]

Nice work

 

[tpenfield]

BTW - 1708 cloth yields about 0.045” thickness. So, the 4 layers on the transom are getting you 0.190” thickness

 

[gmach]

Got my stringers glassed in with 3 layers of 1708. The glass tabbing for the stringers runs about 10 inches onto the hull just as wide as the stringers are tall. I have been using vinyl ester to laminate glass and epoxy to bond the structure to the boat. Right now i'm installing the bulkheads and trying to figure out how i am going to plumb these fuel tanks. When the boat is sitting level relatively. The hull bottom slopes down 2 1/2 inches from the stern toward the bow and the side tanks sit higher in the vee of the hull bottom. I figure the best place to make the tank connections are at the front of the tank because that would where the fuel would naturally collect. I would run about 1 inch piping from the front of the side tanks through the stringers and back into the front of the main tank. I will also install shut off valves for both sitde tanks in the areas where the round inspection hatches are installed. That is the plan; am I missing anything? Let me know what you guys think. I also included an AI generated image to give you an idea of the tank layout.