made in china
Seaman
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2009
- Messages
- 51
I have a '86 Larson Citation bowrider that we recently bought. The floor was soft between the fuel tank access door and back seats between the stringers, and the fuel tank access door was soft too. We bought the boat anyway knowing this. This is our first boat, meant to get my wife "on board" about having a boat in our family.
So, last weekend I tackled the soft floor problem. I work at a DOT, and we've abandoned using plywood for signs, so we have a good deal of NOS 1/2" and 3/4" sign grade plywood. I reckon it is probably better than (well, at least as good) regular marine grade stuff, it's 5 layer for 1/2" and has some kind of rock hard coating on it, like formica. So I scored some for my project.
I rebuilt the fuel tank access door, reusing the old carpet. I found a 6" section of one stringer rotted into soil. The rest of the stringer is rock solid.
I cut out the soft spot of the rear floor, cutting along the central line of the stringers and putting a new piece of wood in. I used SS screws all around. I did NOT glass, but I sealed the cuts with weather/waterproof liquid nails.
I did find a small soft spot on the deck, about 4" in diameter that is soft above that rotted stringer. This spot is in a no step area for now, so it's a non-issue.
Now the floor is rock solid again, but there is rot affecting at least one layer of the original plywood (but it's solid these days), a partially rotted stringer and a small soft spot above that. No one will notice now, BUT....
My question is how quickly does rot progress? I did a quickie repair knowing that the existing stuff will probably finally fail before the new repair does.
So do ya'll think I can get 2 or 3 seasons out of it? I've never witnessed rot progression before, so I have no idea how quickly the rot "grows"...
So, last weekend I tackled the soft floor problem. I work at a DOT, and we've abandoned using plywood for signs, so we have a good deal of NOS 1/2" and 3/4" sign grade plywood. I reckon it is probably better than (well, at least as good) regular marine grade stuff, it's 5 layer for 1/2" and has some kind of rock hard coating on it, like formica. So I scored some for my project.
I rebuilt the fuel tank access door, reusing the old carpet. I found a 6" section of one stringer rotted into soil. The rest of the stringer is rock solid.
I cut out the soft spot of the rear floor, cutting along the central line of the stringers and putting a new piece of wood in. I used SS screws all around. I did NOT glass, but I sealed the cuts with weather/waterproof liquid nails.
I did find a small soft spot on the deck, about 4" in diameter that is soft above that rotted stringer. This spot is in a no step area for now, so it's a non-issue.
Now the floor is rock solid again, but there is rot affecting at least one layer of the original plywood (but it's solid these days), a partially rotted stringer and a small soft spot above that. No one will notice now, BUT....
My question is how quickly does rot progress? I did a quickie repair knowing that the existing stuff will probably finally fail before the new repair does.
So do ya'll think I can get 2 or 3 seasons out of it? I've never witnessed rot progression before, so I have no idea how quickly the rot "grows"...
