Hello all, my son recently purchased a 14' 1981 Forester tri-hull for $200 including motor and trailer. It was obvious upon purchasing the boat that the deck was in need of repairs but for $200 he couldn't pass it up.
After a summer's use of it we've decided to tear into the floor to see what we had to work with. After removing a couple hundred pounds of soaked open cell foam I was surprised to find only one single stringer running up the center of the boat. (Which fortunately is solid with no visible cracks) I figured there would for sure be some sort of support below where the deck and hull walls meet.
I am planning on glassing in a new marine plywood floor but my question is - will tabbing the floor to the walls be sufficient enough structurally? Obviously it was good enough for the boat to be built that way but it just concerns me.
My second question is - could I add stringers equally spaced on both sides of the original center stringer, or would that make the boat too rigid per it's original design causing more problems down the road?
Thanks in advance!
After a summer's use of it we've decided to tear into the floor to see what we had to work with. After removing a couple hundred pounds of soaked open cell foam I was surprised to find only one single stringer running up the center of the boat. (Which fortunately is solid with no visible cracks) I figured there would for sure be some sort of support below where the deck and hull walls meet.
I am planning on glassing in a new marine plywood floor but my question is - will tabbing the floor to the walls be sufficient enough structurally? Obviously it was good enough for the boat to be built that way but it just concerns me.
My second question is - could I add stringers equally spaced on both sides of the original center stringer, or would that make the boat too rigid per it's original design causing more problems down the road?
Thanks in advance!
