v1_0
Chief Petty Officer
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2007
- Messages
- 575
It's the same old story: noticed a couple of soft spots in the deck, drilled a few holes and found rot. Pulled the deck off, and noticed some discoloration on the stringers. Cut a bit off the top of those, and found mush in places that used to have wood.
Really, there's only three choices at that point: repair the stringers, replace the boat, or have a viking burial. Since I'm posting in the "Boat Restoration, Building, and Hull Repair" forum - and not in jail - it should be clear that I didn't go with the viking burial thing. Although at this point I'm thinking that it would have been more enjoyable and less costly (jail time and fines considered) than what I ended up choosing to do - and I haven't even completed all of the tear down yet.
My first step was to split the boat in half so that I could get at all of the bottom half/stringers - and do a full assessment of all of the rot to the stringer/support framework of the boat. I couldn't do this with the top on because the very front of the top shell has a fiberglass bottom that rests on the deck, as should be visible in these pictures.
View attachment 163579
View attachment 163580
The boat is a 1989 21' Galaxy Cuddy Cruiser, with a Mercruiser 4.3L Alpha.
Assessment involved removing the engine and outboard, getting rid of all the wet foam, then cutting the tops of the stringers in a 'V' (to preserve their height) and to take a good look at the wood (or lack thereof) in the stringer.
After the assessment, the plan is as follows:
(1) Remove any rotten/soft wood.
(2) Treat any remaining wood with CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer).
(3) Fill any voids with SeaCast.
(4) Patch any fiberglass that I had to cut.
At this point, I am about 170% through step 1 and about 90% done with it. Why 170%? Because, as the song goes "The stringers are connected to the - engine supports, the engine supports are connected to the - transom". Plus there are some other random wood pieces connected to the stringers at various places. Most of which had some level of rot to them.
In regards to the plan, CPES claims to be able to penetrate deep into good, soft, and even 'bad' wood with some sort of solvent 'carriers' and deposit epoxy into it making the wood virtually 'rot proof'.
SeaCast is a pourable transom/stringer (ie: wood) replacement that proports to be lighter and stronger than the wood it replaces. It is also 'rot proof'.
Based on the literature from both products, they should be compatible - CPES is formulated from wood (".. the resins are derived from wood pulp.."), and SeaCast seems to bond to wood. (They do warn that this will create a 'shear point' because of the strength variation between it and wood, so I'll need to make sure that I don't create a 'butt joint' and go for something much more angled).
Finally, I'll use regular (West) epoxy and fiberglass - both to repair the stringers up to their original fiberglass thickness, then to build them up a bit more to make sure.
More pictures / status to follow.
Really, there's only three choices at that point: repair the stringers, replace the boat, or have a viking burial. Since I'm posting in the "Boat Restoration, Building, and Hull Repair" forum - and not in jail - it should be clear that I didn't go with the viking burial thing. Although at this point I'm thinking that it would have been more enjoyable and less costly (jail time and fines considered) than what I ended up choosing to do - and I haven't even completed all of the tear down yet.
My first step was to split the boat in half so that I could get at all of the bottom half/stringers - and do a full assessment of all of the rot to the stringer/support framework of the boat. I couldn't do this with the top on because the very front of the top shell has a fiberglass bottom that rests on the deck, as should be visible in these pictures.
View attachment 163579
View attachment 163580
The boat is a 1989 21' Galaxy Cuddy Cruiser, with a Mercruiser 4.3L Alpha.
Assessment involved removing the engine and outboard, getting rid of all the wet foam, then cutting the tops of the stringers in a 'V' (to preserve their height) and to take a good look at the wood (or lack thereof) in the stringer.
After the assessment, the plan is as follows:
(1) Remove any rotten/soft wood.
(2) Treat any remaining wood with CPES (Clear Penetrating Epoxy Sealer).
(3) Fill any voids with SeaCast.
(4) Patch any fiberglass that I had to cut.
At this point, I am about 170% through step 1 and about 90% done with it. Why 170%? Because, as the song goes "The stringers are connected to the - engine supports, the engine supports are connected to the - transom". Plus there are some other random wood pieces connected to the stringers at various places. Most of which had some level of rot to them.
In regards to the plan, CPES claims to be able to penetrate deep into good, soft, and even 'bad' wood with some sort of solvent 'carriers' and deposit epoxy into it making the wood virtually 'rot proof'.
SeaCast is a pourable transom/stringer (ie: wood) replacement that proports to be lighter and stronger than the wood it replaces. It is also 'rot proof'.
Based on the literature from both products, they should be compatible - CPES is formulated from wood (".. the resins are derived from wood pulp.."), and SeaCast seems to bond to wood. (They do warn that this will create a 'shear point' because of the strength variation between it and wood, so I'll need to make sure that I don't create a 'butt joint' and go for something much more angled).
Finally, I'll use regular (West) epoxy and fiberglass - both to repair the stringers up to their original fiberglass thickness, then to build them up a bit more to make sure.
More pictures / status to follow.
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