cprince
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- May 22, 2008
- Messages
- 148
I would just like to say that I have been lurking on this site off and on for the past 6 or 7 months. I finally joined the other day ‘cause I knew that I was going to need help with this whole thing.
My nautical terminology is virtually non existent, and my knowledge of fiberglass comes solely from reading this site for the past while. This site is second to none!
I know (pretty well) what I want to do… but I am not sure how to go about it.
The boat has some rot issues. I am trying like hell to get all the rotted wood out and replace it with half way decent replacements. The wood that is in question is sandwiched in the side benches and rear bench. The floor (I started cutting it away today…) and the casting deck.
There is also a piece of wood that is encased in fiberglass that runs down the middle of the boat like a spine at the top side of the shell on the inside of the boat, (I assume that this is referred to as a stringer) the section that I have seen is water logged and punky.
This leads to my first question;
1) If it is rotted only say… 5 feet of the total 14… do I have to replace the who shebang? Can I join a new piece to the existing and still be structurally sound?
Next; I am not going to change the layout of the interior of the boat… much… I will extend the left side bench/storage area to join the back bench so it can accommodate full length fishing rods. It will grow from 48 inches long to 84 inches long. I figured I would only do it on the left side due to me needing leg room to steer my outboard while sitting on the right side of the boat. 36 inches is nice leg room for a guy like me who is 6 foot 3 inches…
But the wood in both benches are not so great and need replacing… This leads to my second question;
2) Can I just dig out all the wood from these benches and leave the existing fiberglass shell (which appears to be quite strong and in excellent condition), then insert the new wood (ha ha.. I said “insert the new wood”…) then fiberglass it in?
Now for the floor. I have removed parts of it in an exploratory type excursion. I have left a bit of a lip or old fiberglass where the floor joined the inner shell of the boat;
3) Is it imperative that I grind that stuff off right to the shell?
4) Another somewhat embarrassing question I have is… how do I lay down the floor? Do I nail it into the stringer down the center? Then I glass it to the shell? Is that enough? I was thinking about putting Styrofoam down either side of the stringer for buoyancy and less cold coming up trough the floor. Saw some one else do that on this site!
The casting deck… The previous owner slammed a hole in it to accommodate a seat post.
Is that really necessary? Aren’t there surface mounts that disperse the weight enough? Looking into the hole, I can see that there is a mess of Styrofoam in there that will likely need to be replaced.
I have pictures posted of my boat, and if you look at the nose, can anyone give me a suggestion how to mount my trolling motor? That red plastic-y fiberglass trim is not very strong. I could just put some kind of wood monstrosity…. But I think that it would look like arse… When I bought the thing (Minn Kota Power Drive 40 Bow Mount), I did not think how hard it would be to mount in a proper and aesthetically pleasing manor!
I am quite perplexed about the design of fiberglass boats like mine. From everything I have read, both here and other places, the cardinal sin of boat making, maintenance, designing and just general care is; Keep out water. Do not let it get in. If it does, make sure it has a quick way out. Never give it the opportunity to pool. If I look at mine and many other boats like mine, they have a floor to give you a flat surface to stand on (I assume that is why anyway…), this leaves a cavity between the boat’s shell and the floor. Everything is sealed up nicely and there are grooves on either side of the floor to channel the water all the way to the back of the boat until you get to the back bench and also to the transom. There is a hole with a brass rim just forward of the back bench to let any pooled water in to that cavity and I suppose that the idea is to let it flow back to where the plug it. Open the plug while you are WOT on the water and she drains as pretty as you please. But this makes no sense at all to me. All that water can go to the front of the boat and will in certain conditions (And certainly has on mine). All that work to seal the front 2/3rds of the boat for nothing! Why wouldn’t there be a couple of holes that would allow the water to pass through the back bench instead? I am inclined to make sure that no matter the angle that the boat happened to be on, that there is no way that any water can get into that cavity.
I understand that the plug hole is below the deck’s level, but if the groves that run the length of either side of the boat’s floor all lead to a approximately 10inch by 12 inch bowl like dip in the floor would help channel the water right to the plug area. This would be SEALED!
Is there a flaw in my thinking?
Thanks for reading… sorry for so many questions… but I can assure you that I will be posting more questions and pictures of my progress or lack there of.
BTW; This is my first boat EVER!
My nautical terminology is virtually non existent, and my knowledge of fiberglass comes solely from reading this site for the past while. This site is second to none!
I know (pretty well) what I want to do… but I am not sure how to go about it.
The boat has some rot issues. I am trying like hell to get all the rotted wood out and replace it with half way decent replacements. The wood that is in question is sandwiched in the side benches and rear bench. The floor (I started cutting it away today…) and the casting deck.
There is also a piece of wood that is encased in fiberglass that runs down the middle of the boat like a spine at the top side of the shell on the inside of the boat, (I assume that this is referred to as a stringer) the section that I have seen is water logged and punky.
This leads to my first question;
1) If it is rotted only say… 5 feet of the total 14… do I have to replace the who shebang? Can I join a new piece to the existing and still be structurally sound?
Next; I am not going to change the layout of the interior of the boat… much… I will extend the left side bench/storage area to join the back bench so it can accommodate full length fishing rods. It will grow from 48 inches long to 84 inches long. I figured I would only do it on the left side due to me needing leg room to steer my outboard while sitting on the right side of the boat. 36 inches is nice leg room for a guy like me who is 6 foot 3 inches…
But the wood in both benches are not so great and need replacing… This leads to my second question;
2) Can I just dig out all the wood from these benches and leave the existing fiberglass shell (which appears to be quite strong and in excellent condition), then insert the new wood (ha ha.. I said “insert the new wood”…) then fiberglass it in?
Now for the floor. I have removed parts of it in an exploratory type excursion. I have left a bit of a lip or old fiberglass where the floor joined the inner shell of the boat;
3) Is it imperative that I grind that stuff off right to the shell?
4) Another somewhat embarrassing question I have is… how do I lay down the floor? Do I nail it into the stringer down the center? Then I glass it to the shell? Is that enough? I was thinking about putting Styrofoam down either side of the stringer for buoyancy and less cold coming up trough the floor. Saw some one else do that on this site!
The casting deck… The previous owner slammed a hole in it to accommodate a seat post.
Is that really necessary? Aren’t there surface mounts that disperse the weight enough? Looking into the hole, I can see that there is a mess of Styrofoam in there that will likely need to be replaced.
I have pictures posted of my boat, and if you look at the nose, can anyone give me a suggestion how to mount my trolling motor? That red plastic-y fiberglass trim is not very strong. I could just put some kind of wood monstrosity…. But I think that it would look like arse… When I bought the thing (Minn Kota Power Drive 40 Bow Mount), I did not think how hard it would be to mount in a proper and aesthetically pleasing manor!
I am quite perplexed about the design of fiberglass boats like mine. From everything I have read, both here and other places, the cardinal sin of boat making, maintenance, designing and just general care is; Keep out water. Do not let it get in. If it does, make sure it has a quick way out. Never give it the opportunity to pool. If I look at mine and many other boats like mine, they have a floor to give you a flat surface to stand on (I assume that is why anyway…), this leaves a cavity between the boat’s shell and the floor. Everything is sealed up nicely and there are grooves on either side of the floor to channel the water all the way to the back of the boat until you get to the back bench and also to the transom. There is a hole with a brass rim just forward of the back bench to let any pooled water in to that cavity and I suppose that the idea is to let it flow back to where the plug it. Open the plug while you are WOT on the water and she drains as pretty as you please. But this makes no sense at all to me. All that water can go to the front of the boat and will in certain conditions (And certainly has on mine). All that work to seal the front 2/3rds of the boat for nothing! Why wouldn’t there be a couple of holes that would allow the water to pass through the back bench instead? I am inclined to make sure that no matter the angle that the boat happened to be on, that there is no way that any water can get into that cavity.
I understand that the plug hole is below the deck’s level, but if the groves that run the length of either side of the boat’s floor all lead to a approximately 10inch by 12 inch bowl like dip in the floor would help channel the water right to the plug area. This would be SEALED!
Is there a flaw in my thinking?
Thanks for reading… sorry for so many questions… but I can assure you that I will be posting more questions and pictures of my progress or lack there of.
BTW; This is my first boat EVER!
I'm picking up a 14' boat very similar to your boat tomorrow and I'm going to do a lot of the same things it looks like you're doing. (ripping up the casting deck, replacing the floor & stringers, and changing the layout) 