I got stringer problems!

[Vic]

I bought an 84 steplift last year. It's been converted from the old Cdrive to a nice swimplatform with o/b 175 merc, its a supper boat. Doing winter touchup maintenance and pulled the stern livewell completly out thing about doing pourfoam in the V of the hull with some plumbing. Just realized today that mt stringers are soft. Has anybody ever lifted the cap off of the back and tackled this one? Man I could use some suggestions.

Welcome Vic (not to be confused with Victor, who is also welcome - but just not Vic) :)

How do you know your stringers are soft?
How far up from stern to stem are they soft?
How did water get in them *to make them soft?
Is your transom soft, too?

Start by going to the "how to" forum, and learn how to do a search. Sugest you search for the words "stringer" and "seacast" and "woven". You are not the first guy, and you won't be the last guy. There have been some good discussions of this, and reading them will help you get started. There are also links on the home page to other worthwhile sites like "thehulltruth" and the Seacraft websites that will also yield good info with such searches.

Good luck, and a picture is worth a thousand words.

[Vic]

Thanks for responding. I pulled out the stern storage or baitwell to do a hatch repair which revieled the bilge area so I figured clean it out while its open and noticed a crack between the bulk head and the stringer so I pushed on it. It has a cutout over the top of it for the fuel line and looks like the wood was exposed i reached into the stringer and am pulling chunks of wood out of it. I'm not sure how far forward it goes but the transom and about 10 to 12 " forward are solid. The boat was converted from the old sea drive in 1992. So that may explain why its still good. I was thinking about cutting the stringers out while leaving the lid on and since I'm a carpenter by trade maybe sistering them as far forward as i could, but I really would like to fix it for good.

[reelapeelin]

There's got to be some secure way to "marry-up" the ends of those stringers...the part that's good w/the part you'll replace...good luck ;)...sounds like you got a project on your hands...

SK's right there's plenty of info on the how-to...

[Vic]

Sk- you ask where the water came from. Seems like there is no way for water that is on the outside of the stringers to get to the bilge. Also it looks like this boat had scuppers but the thru-holes in the back of the deck are just draining into the outside of the stringers. So instead of being self bailing its self rotting. After I put in scuppers and replace stringers, how will water from rod holders get to the bilge? Or is it to minimal to worry about?

[bigshrimpin]

Vic - If it just the ends of your stringers . . . go to west marine and pick up a copy of the west systems fiberglass repair manual ($2.99) . Chapter 3 describes repairing sections your stringers that have rotted out.

When you say that they soft . . .
How did you come to the conclusion that the stringers are soft?

[Vic]

I took out the back hatch and saw a crack between the starboard stringer and the first bulk head. The were glassed together. The top of the stringer had been cut down about 3" to run a fuel line over it which exposed the wood. I could pull out muddy chunks of wood.

But today i took a grinder and cut the inside fiberglass skin off of the stringers and have been cleaning totaly saturated wood out of both stringers. Nasty job but the best part is the transom is solid, and I have all the wood out now I'm goin in for the clean up of all the water and remaining mud. Thinking about relacing with something besides wood.

[reelapeelin]

can he clean it out good and then inject foam back into it...would that be structurally sound or is that too easy?....

[Vic]

Here is the plan. rollup some soaked mat, push it as far forward into the stringers cavity creating a plug then soak the leftover skin shove in the new wood toward the front then shove in the new wood with soaked mat toward the transom. lay new woven over the new wood like a mummy. I hope it works. What do yall think?

[reelapeelin]

You could foam any resulting openings...sounds good to me...