'82 SN2001 GUT job and rebuild

Like many others, I have been a lurker for many years. Great advice, tips and knowledge here.

Over the winter, it was decided that it was time to address the inevitable. Condensation on the exterior of the hull below the floor line was the evidence of what we seem to have all dealt with.

I knew this was a project boat from day one. And to say that it has been a learning experience is an understatement.

The boat has 600 hours on it (well that's what the hour meter said) and we put another 650 on it over the last 10 years.

And so in a late March snowstorm up here in Eastern Ontario Canada, I towed the boat to a double stall garage and began the gouging.

Frankly, it was the CC forums that gave me the confidence (arrogance?) to believe that a weekend carpenter could pull this off.

So a few month later, the stringers (douglas fIr) are cut/shaped and CPES'd. The resin and cloth /materials are laid out on six tables and the hull is ground down to salmon pink on the inside.

Oh, and there is Mercury RH rotation 383 MAG Inboard 4V sitting on a crate waiting for the light-up.

A few questions:(and I apologize if these are covered somewhere on CCF, but i cannot locate specific answers)

Bedding stringers:
1. To bond the main and secondary's to the hull, most seem to recommend a chopped strand with a thickened resin/cabosil. Did anyone post a "recipe" for the concoction?? i guess i am cutting the fiberglass cloth into strands and laying this down on top of a bead of resin applied to the hull? Then adding more resin to bottom of stringers and sandwiching this all together with weight? Did anyone have advice on how they systematically achieved this process? what proportions of cabosil/resin/fibers did they use?

2. How many layers of cloth over the main stringers? how many coats of resin? Did anyone cloth over the tops of the secondary's?

3. Has anyone else installed a Merc engine? (i know i am going to hear it from some about going with this option, but frankly, up here where I am, Mercury is just easier to service and get parts for. One of the concerns is fitting under the dog house, once installed.)

4. Fairing compound. What are the recommended proportions for mixing this together?

5. Did anyone thicken their resin for stringers or floor coats?


Insane in the membrane,
Crazy Canuck in Canada (Triple C)

scott