23' Fish Nautique Restoration Project

Secondary stringers installed.....
Today was a GREAT day with the boat. I got an early start with my Buddies Shawn and Brian with me. The goal today was to get both sides of the secondary stringers installed.

First thing I did was wipe the inside of the boat with acetone. I then dry fit the stringers that I was installing one more time so myself and my friends knew what we where doing. I had a crazy idea to spray the resin instead of rolling it. I figured it would slow down are working time. If I could get everything wet out quick I would have more time to roll and brush all the air out. That said, I have a gel coat dump gun that I used for a few other projects, if it can spray gel it can spray resin. It worked soooooo good. Ok so here are the pics and the steps.

First step is to wet out the underside of the PRISMA preform stringers. This is the most important step. Make sure the entire underside is wet!!! As you can see in this picture that the dump gun sprays the resin very good.



Do the wet out in sections. The performs we are using came in 4ft lenghts. We did two at a time. This seemed to worked well for are 24oz mix of resin.

Once the underside is wet, flip the stringer over into position and wet out the topside. You want the stringer tabs to be as transparent as they will get. With spraying I used 24oz on each side for a pair. So that's two 4ft sections both sides really wet was 24oz of resin.

Once the first row was wet and in position we started to roll and brush all the air bubbles out.









I just repeated the process for the second row.






That's about the extent of these wonderful preforms. The entire job took us 2 hours.
First side done.




All done and ready for lunch. I will install the cap glass tomorrow first thing in the morning. The cap glass is a piece of biax that runs the oppisite direction as the biax on the stringer.



There is more pictures on my photobucket accout.
http://s576.photobucket.com/albums/ss210/jzarski/23%20Fish%20Nautique/

Inboard stringers done.....
Today we installed the inboard (main) stringer. These were cut at a 24 degree dead rise from Compsys. Each stringer took 48oz of resin to wet out. The install was the same as yesterdays secondary stringers. Enjoy the pictures....

This is the jig that we made to space the stringers the correct distance from each other.



Once the stringer was wet we placed it into position and installed the jig. The white stuff you see in this photo is wax paper so the wood won't stick to the wet resin on the stringer.




This is the first two stringers done. We did one at a time, leaving the jig on for about 30mins per side.



Now onto the front two. These were a little more difficult due to the curve of the bow. I used the same jig but adjusted it to fit the curve.


This is Scott Lewit, owner of Compsys checking our work and progress. It says allot about a company when the owner is willing to come by and give advice on what the next step should be.


All done. It took us about 2 hours working time to do this job. It was an all day job but allot of the time is waiting for resin to dry. Each stringer took about 30mins to wet and set.

Its lookn awesome bud! pretty work... When are you planning on being done with the project???

SNobsessed wrote: JZ - Your project looks great. I do have a question - with the stringers being in sections, isn't there a weak spot where the ends meet? How will you join the ends together so that spot is just as strong as the rest?

I agree that it looks great but also thought about the same spot. However, the core of the product doesn't add much if any strength so a layer of glass at the splice equal to the same on the rest will tie it together with close to the same strength.

I may have missed the glass layup schedule in the thread but hope there's more glass going over the composite stringers to make up for the lost strenght of the wood.

Looks good dude,,,
Question, the stringers are run all the way to the stern. Are there no drain exists in the design for water to run from each section to the middle bilge area?

jzarski wrote: I plan on drilling one inch holes towards the stern. I will insert a PVC pipe in the hole and glass around it.

Consider using fiberglass tube. It's still unknown and up in the air on how well the resin will stick to PVC.

jzarski wrote: 8122pbrainard wrote: jzarski wrote: I plan on drilling one inch holes towards the stern. I will insert a PVC pipe in the hole and glass around it. Consider using fiberglass tube. It's still unknown and up in the air on how well the resin will stick to PVC. Where can I buy fiberglass tube or is it easier to make it?

McMaster Carr list's it but it may be easier to make it. I'd actually make it half round so you can get it closer to the hull. Try taking the cardboard tube out of the center of a paper towel roll. Cut it in half and wrap it with the wax paper. Lay up some glass and you should have some decent half round fiberglass.

A alternate is to cut your hole, wrap the desired size of glass/resin around a balloon, insert, inflate and cut the ends to fold onto the stringer/hull.

that was a great idea!! that looked alot easier than stacking layer over layer of glass! great job john

Hatch building...
Well I am kind of at a standstill with the hull so yesterday and today I decided to start making my hatches. I had the molds done already. So Shawn and I got the big one PVAed, gelcoated and layed up. It came out really really good. Today we did the hatch. These are the big hatches, I will be using for over the bilge area. Enjoy the pics.

This is the Mold of the frame.


Gelcoat applied (3 coats)


Layup. 5 layers of chop, 2 layers of biax



This is the part just out of the mold. Looks green because the PVA is still on it.


Here is the final frame part. Just trim the flange and recess the deck and install it.


Here is the mold of the hatch. It is already PVAed in this photo


Gelcoat applied


Layup


Finished Hatch. Still has the PVA on it


I have a few size hatch molds so I will document each one as I make them. Closest I will get to a factory molded hatch

Very nice. I like it!! Keep up the excellent work.

very nice! are you going to making a big mold for the foreward deck/fish box??

yeah it does... thats how i was doing the front hatch but i dont think it will come out anything close to as nice as the hatch you did there lol that looks awesome! Would you be interested in doing another bilge hatch and door for me and ill buy it off you?

probably just one in the bilge and ive already started the front but thanks thatd be awesome!

Hey John, yeah ill put pics up when i get back from North Carolina, doing my annual deer hunt/get away time lol... i havent really done muck more than what youve seen. Just alot of glassing and making sure those stringers and bulkheads are ONE with the boat. I put 2 more layers of roven and mat and also tied all the bulkheads in. I just painted my fuel tank the other day with coal tar epoxy but the cold weather is making the cure take forever. So after i put a couple more coats on it, ill set that in the boat and start running fuel lines, plumbing and electrical.