Minx20

The core is ply and the glass cloth is the rougher woven that looks to be 22oz and the cap and sides of the stringers are about 1/4" if not a bit thicker. You can see the woven pattern in the stringers. From the original spec sheet from the boat they say "Heavy duty competition lay up, stringers, bulkheads, all hand laid," don't know if this means anything but the stringers are alot stiffer than most I have ever seen, and even with the coring gone, I can not even flex them in any direction. Sorry to sound inexpirenced in this, but I am.

Thanks for the help,

E.S.

Audiofn

I would be concerned to use the pour in stuff in stringers. That stuff is used for transoms and the transom see's different stresses then the stringers. I guess you can try and check with them about if stringers would be a good use for it. I know the grinding out option is not apealing but I still think that it is the only good way to do it. I find it very hard to believe that you will be able to get out all the air on the sides, there is very little strength in resin with out glass so if as you push the stringer down and as it forces the resin up from the bottom you may push the laminates outward and leave a unacceptable gap in there.

As for the foam you would probably want at leaste a 8 pound or more foam.

The issue that I look at is that the boat was engineered to be put together the way it was. Unless you have a Marine engineering degree redesigning things may not be such a great idea.

Jon

jimslade

I would stay away from products like seacast, they are too ridgid. The core material I would use is called nidacore. you could use airex or some other marine type of foam. Dont use expanding foam, you could split the stringers. 1/4 inch should be thick enough for caping stringers. After you have cored and filled with epoxy. you should close the repair with at least one layer of 1810 bidirectional glass.Dont use polyester resin. You will not get the bonding as with epoxy. You can email me if you need advise.

Minx20

Jon,

I tend to agree with your thinking, I am just making sure before I cut into these things. I had been reading somewhere that some builders used plywood cored stringers, just to core the form, and used a heavy lay-up of cloth as the strength. This is similar to what "Gary Thrasher" seemed to imply in his previous response as well. It makes sense as my stringers are at least 1/4" on the caps and sides, much thicker, allmost double than most that I have seen, and of a much heavier cloth. The stringers cores have been rotted or empty for quite awhile now, many years, and the previous owner wave jumped this boat on a reqular basis, and there was no structural\hull damage, which I would have expected lets say on a boat with reqular built stringers if they were missing their core material.

Not sure at this point,

E.S.

Audiofn

My Formula used plywood for the stringers. You may have seen it on my stringer replacement thread. We glssed them out of the boat then tabbed them in. This served two purposes. First we were able to vacume bag them (not really required but it was cool to be able to do), and it was much easier that way. I was not using huge sheets of glass and trying to work it all in and get the resin to soak into it. By doing it out of the boat we were able to possition the glass perfectly for less waiste, then shoot it with resin out of the chopper gun (with the cop turned off) and then shoot a little chop btwn layers for added strength. From there I just used 8" wide tabs to bond them into the boat. When you do your tabbing make sure that you stagger the edges. You do not want them to all end in the same location. a good 2-3" stagger is enough.

Again let me suggest that you do not cut out more then one stringger at a time and make sure that the boat has plenty of sapport under it so that you do not loose the shape of the hull.

Gary Thrasher

It sounds like the glass strength type constrution like a Chris vs a Baja of the 80's. Wood was only used as form for sringer cofiguration. This is a good combo for easier repair. All the filler suggestions above are good. Be sure to use the 12/1 ratio of grind vs patch. In other words what ever depth you grind in you have to spread that out as you taper it on an angle up to original height covering 12 times the depth.1/8" = 1.5" taper bevel to top. 1/4" = 2.5" minimum. More is better but not past 18/1 then you are just making a hard spot. Good luck, it is not hard and you will be proud of yourself when your done. drop a line to email it you want faster reponse I dont get on OSO much.

Minx20

Gary, tried your email, but I think it is incorrectly listed in your profile. Check it out.

Thanks,

E.S.

Gary Thrasher

sent you contact info

Hot Boat

My 28 scarab needed two bulk heads and the stringers replaced from the fire wall into the cabin. I had to remove everything in my boat , from the motor and every thing in the bilged and the cockpit , floor and gas tank, all the way onto the cabin.

There was NO WAY I was putting wood back into the boat only to rot again.

I cut the tops off all the stringers and gutted the rotted wood out . I got about 25 gallons of Seacast and re filled all of them.

Think about it for a minute.

If the wood rotted why would you reinstall wood.

check out the seacast web site . Its lighter stronger and will never rot.

this is in a 28 Scarab with a 600 Hp motor that I beat the hell out off. Once the seacast was installed the boat is solid as a rock and faster than ever.

Check out there website. the video dose no Justice . the product has been improved and is easier to work with . If it wasn't for seacast I would of rather junked the hull.

Good luck

Paul

Minx20

HotBoat,

I have looked into SeaCast, and even posted some questions on their site. Have had no responses yet. One of my concerns with the product was that they indicated that it was not recommended to use epoxies with their product, for example to re-cap the stringers that were cut open on the top. I want to use epoxy on my rebuild because of the added strength.

Any insight?

Thanks,
E.S.