Whitehouse stringers

[racinmason]

I have a 1960 Whitehouse 14' runabout that I just bought that is in excellent shape except for the port stringer.There are 2 stringers on this boat(with no floor)and they are completely glassed in,except for the front of the port one,which has a spot where the fiberglass broke,allowing water to get in and rot the stringer.There's quite a bit of wood that I dug out with just a screwdriver.I did a drill bit test on both stringers and got no resistance or wood shavings down the length of either one.From the search I did on stringer repair,there seems to be two schools of thought on this.One is that the wood(in my case 2x4s),are nothing but forms for the fiberglass,and the glass supplies all the strength,or two,that the wood in the stringers is structurally part of the boat and should be completely replaced.Trying to replace the stringers in this boat wood be difficult at best,since there are two seat supports that are totally glassed in from side to side,and also over the stringers.Once you got the wood dug out,you'd have to slide the new piece of wood under the seat thru the old hole,which would also make it tuff to do with one piece of wood.So,if I just glass over the stringer where it's broken and leave the rest alone,is the little Comet going to disentigrate on the water,or do I need to replace all the wood in the stringers before we take her out fishin'?(BTW this boat is very well built,with LOTS of fiberglass)<br /> racinmason

 

[swimmin' for shore]

Re: Whitehouse stringers

Go fishing. It doesn't sound like the boat is structurally unsound, so do your repairs in the winter. In Montana, I'd say that should be quickly approaching anyway.<br />As for the stringer repair, I think I'd judge this based on how much of the stringer is rotten. Is it a 1' section? Is it 3 or 4'? If it's not a lot, I'd glass it over and forget about it. Roving cloth will give you some good strength, in lieu of a good wood support system. You have a 1960 glass boat there. They're about a dime a dozen. It sounds like you're already beginning to ask yourself how much of a repair you want to deal with. Removing all of the floor, replacing stringers, putting in new floors, glasswork, reattaching stuff, etc...can be tedious. And expensive. <br />*Note here* If this is a large section of stringer that has rotted, you should probably think about fixing it completely. The stringers and floor give "structure" to your boat. They keep the hull from warping. It wouldn't stop me from going fishing until the season is over, but I'd seriously consider a permanant fix.