Weeding the Pumpkin patch

Man Greg, you need to pick up the pace a little. It is hitting the 80's around here!
Just giving you a hard time. Looking good man!

Greg I wish I had grass to cut. I'm out here in the desert in Maricopa, AZ. Landscape around here is mostly rock coverage.

The cradle looks right at home sitting on the new stringer. It's a shame you have to cover up that nice looking wood.

Most welcome Anthony! I've enjoyed sharing this project and I do hope it will help someone, but I also want to say that sharing it has helped me 2-fold. The obvious is all of the great info I've gotten from so many here on the site(I had an auto fuel pump on my first boat and feel free to project from there! LOL), and the other is that little push I seem to get just when I need it! I enjoy the chain yanking and the good group here...yall are the best!

I should be doing a better job of documenting what I'm doing; Once I got the stringer fitted in, I marked an outline on the floor with a sharpie and the put down a layer of mat. Then I set it in place with gauge blocks and spacers that took the place of glass. After I was happy with where it was, I mixed filler with mill fiber, talc, and cabosil. I then followed with mat, 6oz cloth, and the biaxial that you can see in the pics. I did glass over the foam. That whole area is basically 1 unit now. There are no drainage holes except for a little thing I did where the cradle sits. It used to hold trash between the stringer and the frame...no more! LOL   I intend to use foam under the floor and seal it tight!!!

To add to that Pete, I've got a friend who's been helping me along who thinks I'm making a water trap up front and maybe wherever else as well. I'm thinking of modifying my earlier idea to include a threaded bulkhead and a hose barb connected to a line that runs to the accessible part of the bilge and terminates in a valve. I'm thinking I'll add this to all of the 'boxes'.

Anthony, for the most part I am going back just as the factory did...including the glassed over foam as the tie between the mains and secondaries. I'm using the same structure that CC did, but I have the luxury of a little more time and of having an unfortunate personality disorder that seems to come in handy on this job?!!?   

BuffaloBFN wrote: unfortunate personality disorder

By now hopefully Amy knows about this correct?

Most of our older Aussie built ski boats did not use any flotation foam at all. Under the floors we just use them as air pockets with a bung in the rear of the transom to drain any water that gets in there.

In fact I can't think of any new aussie ski boats that use foam either!

I must say I like the idea of the foam as a safety issue if you hole the hull and the boat tries to sink. The air pocket design will do this to some degree as long as the hole in the hull is not in the air pocket.

I'm going to drill holes in the bottom of the stringers in my 2001 to check their condition.

If a stringer job is required I think I will go with the air pocket design and bungs in the transom. Could even use the seacast method of stringer replacement and do in floor ballast.

Anthony
Yeh the seacast method looks much simpler. I think the downfalls are that it is heavier than timber and more expensive. If it turns out that the boat I intend to sell requires a stringer job I will probably go this way as it is set up for wakeboarding with tower. The extra weight of the seacast would be an advantage here and with no timber in stringers would be able to use under floor ballast another plus for wakeboarders.

Buffalo

More pics please. Your thread has been a pleasure to follow. Look forward to seeing your progress everyday with associated pics.

The timber you used "Douglas Fir" what type of timber is this. I just googled it and it looks to be a pine of some type. I dont think we can get this timber in Aus. Would Oregon timber be OK for stringer replacement??
Although good Oregon is getting very hard to find. Most of the timber we get nowdays seems to still have leaves on it!

lewy2001 wrote: Buffalo More pics please. Your thread has been a pleasure to follow. Look forward to seeing your progress everyday with associated pics.

Thanks mate! This worldwide thing is pretty cool. I haven't been to your country, but my dad just got back and said he'd be there if not here...and you guys sure know how to make a leather hat and an oilskin jacket(superfine)...my favorite in both departments!!!

lewy2001 wrote: The timber you used "Douglas Fir" what type of timber is this. I just googled it and it looks to be a pine of some type.

It is a conifer/softwood like pine but much stronger and with straighter grain. I'll go with nc2001 on what he said if your oregon wood came from here.

Yes nc2001 was right after more research found that what we call Oregon is "Douglas Fir". I cant believe for 2 counties that speak the same language our terminology can be so different. I built my first house 25 years ago with Oregon exposed beams. It was beautiful straight grained timber. The hardware store (US lumber yard) actually called it Canadian Oregon.
Most of our Oregon now comes from New Zealand and is no where near the quality of the Canadian Oregon. Not as straight grained with lots more knots showing. I suppose it all relates to the age of the timber. Most of the old growth timber is now long gone.

Buffalo
10.8lbs is very light I think Seacast will be
be much heavier than that.
What size did your stingers end up?
Did I read it right that you started with 8X4 rough sawn? It looks more like 8X2 in pictures.
I ask this because 5 gallons of Seacast will fill 1000 cu inches and at $210.00 it is not cheap. At 8x2 that is still only just over 5' of stringer for $210.00. Not sure of the weight of the 5 gallon bucket. But considering 5 gallons of water is over 40lbs they are going to be heavy stringers.

Lewy, Pete is correct on the 8/4. In plain terms they started as 2 x 6's. They are 129.5" long, 1 & 11/16ths thick and almost 4" at their tallest point.

I looked at seacast and others in the beginning looking for an easy out, but in the end it made better sense not to reinvent the wheel.

I bet you're living room looks nice with the exposed beam construction...would the little lady miss 2 of them?!!?

i havnt visited the patch lately, just making a social call

Not much snow in Aus but it is starting to cool down now winter is approaching.
My list of winter projects is growing.

Shame I sold that house with exposed beams. Everytime I looked at the ceiling I would have been looking for the best piece to use as a stringer.

Greg thanks for the dimensions on the stringers at 4" x 2" should get 1 stringer from 5 gallon bucket. But they will be at least 4 times heavier than timber.

Peter I'm also not sure Seacast is the best method. I have yet to drill the bottom of stringers in 87. If they show rot I will remove floor and see how easy it will be to get rotten timber out and leave behind fiberglass shell. I will decide at this stage which method of stringer replacement will be used. The cut outs in the stringers will provide problems also as stated.

The 87 I'm planning to sell so looking at the simplest & most economical way to repair if required.

If my 89 required stringer replacement I would probably go with timber because of the weight factor. Even though I do board I like to have a high speed swerving run at the end of every day out on the water.

Id visit more often, but its a long ride to get here

Lewy, along with what Pete was saying, these have 2 'tops'. I think the factory put them in the same way I am. You can see foam between the layers.
1. Glue the stringer down
2. Glass it in
3. Glue the secondary stringer in
4. Glass it in
5. Fill the void with foam
6. glass them both in together

I sanded my foam to fit so there isn't a '2nd' layer, but I had to adjust the height of the stringer to make it up.