GW Invader..Unusual boat and repair issues. Help please.

[bradinwnc]

Well, first I'd like to say hello to everyone and thank y'all for the great information on the forums. I hope you guys can help me with this unusual boat and repair project I've found myself up against. I bought this boat several years ago and finally put it out of commission last July to find the leaks and fix the rot. Several days later I badly broke my ankle and have lost about the last year due to surgeries, other projects, and life in general.

I hope to get to know some of you guys, get some advice, and learn some new skills. I've got far less questions than I originally had starting this project, largely due to forums like this. I'm at the point now that I have several viable options for the next step, but need some opinions.

I'll leave it at that tonight and will post some pics and questions tomorrow. Thanks again for all the great info here.

Brad

 

[bradinwnc]

As I said I bought this boat a few seasons ago and finally decided enough was enough and started demo to find the rot and leaks. So, what I've found is that all the stringers and buklheads are rotten. I have decided to drop the whole floor into the hull about 14" to lower the profile and change things up a bit. Can anyone look at these pics and tell me if any of this mess is stock or not. The stringers were made of 3/4 " plywood, 6" tall for the middle two and 4" tall on the two outer ones. They are tabbed in with 1 piece of heavy mat, no cloth or roving that I can see. None of them were capped and the bulkheads , which were notched across the stringers, supported the mess of 2x4 framing that held the deck. The deck was 3/4" regular PT , which wasn't sealed or glassed at all.

Here are the pics of the boat last year and at present condition. Kinda a bummer but I know it will be better and safer when I'm done.

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0By8dBr58fkJUQmhHRjUyVGN1eDg&usp=sharing

I'm having issues uploading the pics so I hope the link works.

What I need input on before I go any further is this:

# 1.. Do you think I should just cut the stringers out and start over or ....could I dig out the old stuff, which would be easy because it was't capped and is all rotted, and epoxy new core material in, adding a few layers of glass to cap and strengthen.

#2 Since I'm dropping the floor 14", I'm obviosly loosing that bulkhead height and side to side support. I can't decide wether to put the stringers in then cut my bulheads between, or notch each one half into the other then glass the joint.

# Does anyone have one of these beasts tht might be able to provide insight to the original construction?

Thanks

 

[bradinwnc]

No Title

Got to figure out how to lower the size of the original photos. This is before I started

 

[bradinwnc]

Anyone?

 

[funk6294]

Not much that I can add to help you out, but great project! I am interested in seeing more on this, so keep the hard work!

 

[Yacht Dr.]

Hiya Brad..

Looks like you want to build/mod the whole sub structure from scratch. I would treat it like a full resto job. New ply stringers (glassed in). I dont think you have to do all that notching. Just design a good stringer/bulk system for the floor.

Im not really sure what your asking as far as losing the 14" and side support. You obviously need to support the sides. Seats? Knee braces? How you going to do that?

 

[Woodonglass]

1st off Welcome to iBoats!! Next, I'd highly recommend posting your pics via Photobucket. It will automatically size your pics for you. Once you upload them to PB just copy and paste the IMG Code directly into your iBoats thread and Voila' the pics will be instantly posted and sized. As for your stringers, I really think that's all factory albeit a very poor job but sadly something we see a lot of here on the forum!!! I'd Highly recommend you cut it all out, grind it all down to fresh glass and use 1708 to glass in all new stuff. If you're lowering everything 14" does that mean you'll be cutting the hull sides down 14" as well. We have another member that started a restore on a similar Glass deck boat. I'll see if I can dig up the link for you.

Found it...http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...k-boat-transom-deck-stringer-replacement-help