Who has completed a tri hull substituting foam for stringers and how did it work out?

[Roadgypsy]

Howdy folks, joined here a few years back when I was stupidly looking at buying a 26' searay flybridge as my first project and was thankfully talked out of it lol.Just got myself a 72' silverline comoro 17T and has some pretty serious deck rot. I've see a few older posts mention trihull design being strong enough to just clean out the stringers, lay new deck, box off the bilge, and pour foam to fill under floor, but not any that mentioned how it turned out for use? Was wondering if anyone still reccomended this. Supposedly she's ready to go once I replace impeller in the old merc 1150, but sure she probably has quite a bit of rot, so not gonna try any towing or anything, just see if she can fish for a while.

 

[gm280]

Let me see if I understand what your are asking. You want to remove everything out of the hull, then lay plywood flooring and some how support it 'til you pour foam underneath the floor for the support. Is that correct? If so, I'd say NO! But that is just my opinion. I'd try to mimic the original layout of the stringers and flooring. The manufacture did the research and design and knew how it would work the best. So I would go back the same way. JMHO!

 

[Scott Danforth]

There are no short cuts

 

[Roadgypsy]

I never would have thought of it except I saw it mentioned here. http://forums.iboats.com/forum/boat...6-mfg-gypsy-15-tri-hull-restore-advice-needed Was never any mention of how it turned out but was eluded a few others had done it so was curious.

 

[GA_Boater]

Stringers have several purposes. One is deck attachment and support. Another is fore/aft structure to minimize hull flex. Pounding on waves and wakes is hard on any boat's structure.

The long hull project mentioned in the other thread is a V-haul with stringers and the stringers were not left out during the build.

Driven1 dumped the aborted "no stringer tri-hull" project"

Hi all. Long time no type! Had another project here but it kinda fizzled out (as many do).

Leaving out stringers is only a shortcut leading to shortened boat life. Rebuild it the way the designers and engineers meant. My couple of pennies.

 

[Roadgypsy]

Yeah, not gonna matter for a while now anyway....Went to test compression and there was a piece of metal flattened against the #1 plug.....sooooo the head is coming off once I figure out how the lower engine cowl is removed. Also have to swing by dmv to confirm this is in fact a 72' and no title required, because despite the lack of a HIN plate, one was put on bill of sale that I can't find anywhere......so I may have just bought a $1200 trailer.

 

[Scott Danforth]

No paperwork usually means yard planter

 

[Roadgypsy]

No paperwork to be had if it really is a 72. no sign a hin plate was ever there, all glass looks 40 yrs old. I was a bit worried when I saw a supposed hin on bill of sale, and bit moreso now that ran engine serial and it's a 74 unless repowered. All I can do is go to dmv with state watercraft reg number and see what it was registered as.

 

[Roadgypsy]

Well the "good" news is it is confirmed by dmv as a 72, so now I can start throwing money at it...guess start a resto thread once I get on it.

 

[Woodonglass]

There were a few "Stringerless" hulls made back in the day. The Hulls were layed up thicker and filled with 4lb foam. Very solid boats but...the hulls were designed to hold up with just foam. Trying to convert a stringer boat to a Foamed Hull boat is prolly not the best way to go. Not saying that it's not possible but You'd need to lay extra glass down and use the proper foam. The costs would be significantly more than restoring it back to it's original design.