******* Termites

[mikesea]

Hey all.I'm tired .My 23 anacapri that had a seadrive is hurting.Took the seadrive off (84) last week,.Thought it time to convert,put a bracket on,newre engine and life would be grand. Termites hada better idea.,So far I cut 16 inches of the hull liner out of the boat to expose the strigerends,and ripped the wood from the transom.A delimma I got,the 2 outer stingers mut have been attacked, the inners didnt bond directly to the transom,about a foot back.the outers are bad. i cut the ends off back abour 6 inches,the stuff inside is a moist reddish clay type,i found the same in parts of the transom.is this a by product of termites.It almost seems like its a filler for the fiberglass.My thiught is ,it WAS a 1by 3 piece pf wood with fiberglass layered over.it seems so perfect,I cant imagine the critters leaving eaten wood like this. so is there some kind of filler perhapsd tht disolves ,leaving the fiberglss stringer .Hope Im clear on this. never saw anything like it and been working on boats most of my life.Did a few rotted transoms,but this beats all. Sorry for the loooooooooong story.mike

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: ******* Termites

are there trails thru the wood, then it's termites, termites don't eat all the wood, just the softer parts, leaving trails. but bet it's just rot.. now you have to decide to strip it and put in new stringers, and transom, or go looking lor another hull.

 

[Bondo]

Re: ******* Termites

but bet it's just rot..

Ayuh.........

 

[mikesea]

Re: ******* Termites

There were plenty of termites still living in the transom,so I know they were there.But the stringers,just 2 of them,the lower ones I guess it's rotted wood ,but absolutly no hint this stuff was ever wood,it looks and feels just like clay,I shot the hose up into it and it just washes out like mud.A question ,if the boat performed perfectly in 3-5 foot seas,with a rotted transom and the stringers the way they are,suppose i replace all the transom like I was going to do.the stringers are glassed like a brick sh** house.thus leaving strong"glass stringers"any thoughts about if i just do the transom work,glassed in to the existing stringers and floor,and not rip the whole floor up yto replace the stringers that look perfet from the outside but have clay?? filler inside.Is it at all POSSIBLE that what is inside the stringers wasnt wood but something else?It gives no hint of being wood,not a splinter,maybe someone in fiberglass understands this. Thanks again for the replies.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: ******* Termites

it sounds to me like good old south Fla, heat and humidity, wood will turn to mush, in the right conditions, wet hull, Fla sun. you might try flushing it out and injecting some type of filler. 40 years of experience with wood, as a general contractor. i've seen every thing that can happen to wood. wood, water, and heat don't mix well.

 

[mikesea]

Re: ******* Termites

yep daddy,I'm thinking of getting the power washer out and blasting up the hollow,then doin as you suggest,perhaps that seacast I hear about,showed a few guys today.Baffeling,but the ideas are about to be put to the test.thanks all,and any more ideas,Im open.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: ******* Termites

Does the wood look like this? This is just a piece of rotted plywood 44 years old from my 1963 Starcraft

Pressure washer, shop vac and have fun. All the soft stuff will vanish.

 

[mikesea]

Re: ******* Termites

Nope,NO sign of wood ever being there,its as though a machine compacted clay inside the stringer,its damp,the transom is like the picture,but not the stringers,Im going to shoot the 2500 psi power washer up inside the stringer where the wood???should be and wash out as much of the crud possible,then take a snake used to pull electrical wires and see how far it goes,at that point I'm thinking of opening an inspection hole and see whats there.At that point Im thinking of injecting the seacast or a like product to fill the void left in the stringer.Any other ideas are MORE than appreciated.its a great hull,and dispite the problems I accidently ran across ,this transom and stringers took a heck of a beating with no flexing and an old heavy butt seadrive system hanging off the back.