POURABLE STRINGERS "a no brainer"

Well I think hasbeenskier went a different route with I believe cooska and nautique mike has not been on since '11 I think his boat folded up and he went down with the ship---------

It's 1/8" thick on my 87SN.

Yak, I can get the dimensions for you. It will take me several days to get the time to get to it. What year boat do you want use it on? The reason I ask is that I have seen them for sale on this site. Seems to me 79Nautique had one. It may have sold. You might post a request for one. In any event I will get the measurements as quickly as posible. bj

25XS wrote: Downpoint ... is that it's twice the weight of wood transoms.

I thought that might be the case.

N/M
     That's a good idea - Any type of encapsulated nut / retainer is better than a theaded hole in resin . If you can temp mount the S/S rod and mark it from the top, remove it, drill ,tap, then reinstall. A couple hours it,s done.
      Man by the time we get to mine it should be gold plated !
                         See Ya             

H20 Dog-

I am acually thinking of CROSS DRILLING the stringer 3" from the top W/ a 3/4" hole going from one side of the stringer to the other.

Then inserting a 3/4" SS rod through that hole. The rod ends will be seen on either side of the stringer when your done.

Now looking down @ the stringer top, drill down 3" + with a clearance hole (for a 3/8-16 threaded bolt)till you hit the side of the 3/4" rod.

Then drill and tap on the side of rod and go right through.

With this configuration force is distributed more evenly with the 3/4" rod, rather than a thin pin.

Also,for it to rip out the whole fibergla$$ woving from both sides of the stringer plus the 3" of Seacast would have to come with it. If you wanted to make it permanant then you could gla$$ over the ends and hide the rod ends to give the bilge that cla$$ic look.

If you don't gla$$ them in than it will be
possible to remove them if the threads ever strip down the road. Just remove the 3/8-16 bolts which hold the mount and tap the rod out with a hammer.

What do you think?
Thanks-
NM

Guys-

The Seacast material comes with long gla$$ fibers to mix into the concoction. Do you think that changes your oppinion on using lags?

Also, Seacast does not mention anything about using a through bolt technique only. Do other manufactures (Ajay) mention it?

Lastly if it is an issue... How about this idea? I have already poured my stringers so what if I drill two 3/4" holes perpendiciular through the stringers 3" below the mount holes. Then I can fabricate two 3/4" stainless rods to insert into the stringers.

These SS rods will have threaded holes to correspond to the bolt locations and then I can use threaded SS bolts to go through the regular mounts, pa$$ through 3" of Seacast and then through the side of the threaded SS rod.

The idea is like Ikea uses on there modular furniture but in a much more robust fashion.

Whould it work? Would you change any of the dimentions or configurations?

Thanks for the ideas and encouragement!
NM

My thoughts would be to build an aluminum cradle like 1980 S.N.'s and after. So you can through bolt the cradle to the stringers and then bolt the engine to the cradle.
bj

Great job on your boat. I really mean it. I bet you shed several hundred pounds of soupy wood and foam. That should pay great dividends in performance. It is much less of a head ache to pour self-leveling compound than to trim wood to fit. Plenty of advantages to using Seacast.

As for the 30 packs...that is far too much weight for me.

The SeaCast website breaks it down like this:

o 5ea self-leveling 5 gallon buckets $866.18
o 10ea 2.75oz tubes of BPO catalyst $ 65.00
o 5ea 1oz tubes of BPO catalst       $ 16.50

Cost without shipping $947.68 I suspect that $1,000.00 is a pretty good estimate. Then there may be another 5 gallon bucket and catalyst about $200.00. Pretty expensive but if it is a life-long repair it should be worth the cost.

This brings up a question about weight. The shipping weight on all of that stuff is 185lbs. I imagine you can add about ten more pounds for the gla$$ to recap the stringers. Almost 200lbs total.

I consider extra weight to be counter productive to producing soft slalom wakes. How much heavier is this system compared to the traditional stringer replacement?

Waterdog-

Installing the lags are done just like the originals. Predrill through the old hole in the fibergla$$ top (if you left that area intack)with a drill slightly smaller than the threads of the lag. Bolt down.

Skibum-

My 78'SN took five 5 gallons buckets (25 gallons total).

Here's the breakdown:
10 gallons per side for the main stringer.
5 gallons per side for the sencondary stringer set.


Huffy420-

I pull some photos together and post them.

NM

Nautique Mike wrote: Skidawg- I just finished pouring Seacast stringer material into my 78'SN. The process is quite straight forward and I love the results. It was somewhat costly for the material but you only do it once and... IT WON'T ROT! EVER!!!!

How many gallons of material were required to pour all of your stringers?

Skidawg-

I just finished pouring Seacast stringer material into my 78'SN. The process is quite straight forward and I love the results. It was somewhat costly for the material but you only do it once and... IT WON'T ROT! EVER!!!!

Sounds like you are well into it but I will be detailed for those who may be embarking on this repair.

1st thing to check out is to make sure the boat is well positioned on the trailer. If it is not centered or well supported before removing and pouring the new stringers you may introduce some oil canning into the hull.

I went a step further and only removed one of the main stringers' wood @ a time. I chistled out the wood in the morning then poured it in the afternoon and left the garage for the night. The stuff has one strong odor and I wanted to let it cure without my weight/ movement in the boat.

Before pouring the new Seacast and removing the wood I found I had to fix some of CC's work first. CC seemed to cut a few corners and there was quite a few voids to fill on the stringer sidewalls. After the fibergla$$ repairs were cured I sanded any proud surfaces flush with the wood top.

The next thing I did was carefully cut the original fibergla$$ tops out. Using a dremel and a 1/8" milling bit I cut the very top of the fibergla$$ just inside the tangency of the radiused corners. This left me a top refference point to fill to and it kept that original rounded look. I also left the top on the gla$$ @ the four motor mount spots for that no fuss motor re-install.

The wood acually came out relatively easily by using a 6" x 3/4" auger bit and chistles. I drilled straight down to the hull every 6" to 8" (being carefull not to blow through the sidewalls of the fibergla$$ shell). Then I used a chistle on the endgrain to pop out 1/2" tall x 6' to 8" chunks of wood.

Before removing the wood In the back end of the secondary stringers I had to do another prep step. There was a spot where the 3/4" wood was doubled up with a foamed center island. The inside of the foam cavity was too tight to fibergla$$. For this area I removed the old wet foam, let dry and then repoured new 2Lb US Composites closed cell urethane foam.

I trimmed the top to match the stringer after curing then carfully removed the wood around the foam island. This foam island was now part of the stringer mold form and did not change the stiffness/weight in these areas.

Before pouring the Seacast, extra drainage holes were also added to the secondary/ main stringers. I did this by cutting holes throught the now hollow gla$$ skins and inserted a waxed medium size rubber hose. Then after Seacast pouring/ curing I removed the hoses.

The pours were pretty straight forward and I found a small masonry trowl handy in getting the material where I wanted it. I over filled the tops just slightly then sanded flush when curred.

Another material which I am using is KOMA board. It is a solid 3/4" PVC material available from good lumber yards. This is a home building product for exterior trim. It cuts and shapes like wood but will not rot.

This is what I am replaceing the the cross members with. It's also great because it does not require gla$$ing. Just epoxy and stainless screw it to the stringers. Where it needs to be doubled up just glue two peices together with PVC cement. It's nice stuff!

This is were I am @ now. I still plan to regla$$ the stinger tops and coat the inside of the hull with West System epoxy to insure no hydrolysis starts. I will then refill the correct cavities with the 2lb foam and reinstall the old gla$$ floor.

Overall I found the Seacast great to work with, just wear rubber gloves and a good respirator. I think it is going to really pay off during the rebuild. With this process no dimentions or locations have been changed and the boat should just fall back together.

It is also going to be nice to screw everything back on and never hit a soft spot of wood ever again. NICE!!!!!

Over and Out and good luck with yours-
NM

hasbeen, keep us posted on your progress on that Tobago. We like pics too!

I am pleased to see this post take on the life it has and if nothing else it has prompted thought and conversation. I am a strong advocate of doing something right, in hopes it never has to be done again. Additionally, I do seek the insight of industry professionals. Regardless of ones method, wood, foam, epoxy or a ceramic compound. It just goes to illustrate there is more than one way to hang a roll of toilet paper. Having been down the laborious road of stringer replacement and with more boats to do I want to utilize the best methods the industry has to offer. I am working on a 1974 C.C. Tobago with the stringers out, (okay it wasn't exactly like butta but close) and the plan is to go with the Arjay.