stringer lumber

Correct. No epoxy whatso ever. I didn't drill holes all over either, all I did was two coats of poly resin over the lvl, then I coated them in 1 oz. mat, then 3/4 mat before they were layed into the boat. This was the best I could come up with once I ruled out the epoxy. It wouldn't be fair to say that he talked me out of epoxy. It was more of a choice of convenience. He was willing to get me all the epoxy that I wanted but he had the drums of poly on hand. I knew if I needed a bit more that it was convenient to just go and pick up what I needed instead of waiting for the ups man to show up. To be honest if I had to pay more for epoxy, the project probably wouldn't even be finnished this year.
On a different note about foam or no foam.
I kicked the idea around for the year and a half that I had my boat torn apart and decided to put it back in. Yesterday a friend of mine sent me a picture of his boat. He had just left from filling up at the local marina, about 500 yards out he felt a hesitation and the boat rocked slightly, 3 seconds later the passengers where screaming WATER. He throttled down and headed towards shore. By the way this is a Mastercraft from the late 90's by the time he got to shore the water level was calf high in the boat. Long story short. He hit something in the water and from the front wakeboard tower support all the way back to about 6 inches short of the transom his hull is torn open. It's a gash 3 inches deep through the glass and into the foam. The glass on one side of the gouge is missing about 8 inches x 9 feet. The culprit is believed to be an old dock pylon from the shipping days of 80 years ago. Pylons were placed in the water then beams were bolted to the top in order to build the docks. After years the beams would rot off leaving 16" or so of bolt protruding from the top of the pylon. Down the lake people are putting in a new 6 slip dock where these pylons are. They must of moved a few to get their new structure in and released one out into the shipping canal. The whole thing was probably under water a couple of feet leaving the bolt and head a few inches under the water because none of the 5 on board seen anything in the water. But regardless if that boat didn't have the foam in it it would have never made it back to shore. So for me personaly if my floor only last 15 years because I put foam back in it then so be it. If my boat was foamless and then I saw how quick an accident like this can happen and what it can lead to, I wouldn't have one moment at ease out on my boat.

Not a piling. Laminate failure from a bad initial layup aggravated and failure initiated by hydraulic erosion. Latent Manf. defect. Lets hope his adjuster is as clueless as most seem to be. That boat is totaled. I am sure glad none was hurt.

there is a gouge in the foam that you can stick your pinky in just about the whole length from something, definately not just a failure.