Help! Excalibur Marine 38 Fuel tank stringer
 

Excalibur 1981, Hi I am interested in purchasing one. It has the fuel stringers rotted how much would that cost? And does those stringer have something to do with the hull strength structural wise or is that apart from the main stringers that support the hull?
I need help ! Pleaseeeeee!

It'll probably cost more than the finished boat is worth.

My question is are those stringers apart from the main stringers supporting the hull, or are they joint all together?

Think about it this way if you end up restoring the whole hull which you might it is a 1981, at least you will have a solid boat but at price compared to a new one. I am sure some folks here can give you a quick estimate to what they have spent.

Likely just the tip of the iceberg, as others have mentioned. If your looking for an easy patch job consider throwing in some wood boards of similar width to stringers and thru-bolting them to the existing stringers. It is structural. When all the stringers are rotten you will feel the wave travel thru the hull as if it was an air mattress or a wet noodle. Without the structural backing fiberglass will bend.

what's your budget to "fix" the boat?

Quick estimate - you will need $50K in reserves to do it all right. That's on top of the purchase price. It becomes a big complex project, with too many unknowns until you start cutting the boat apart and investigate.

That budget can double once you start down the rabbit hole..... Can easily climb into $100K or more, double that if you want something fancy.

Trying to put it into perspective for you.

Some advice - go spend $75K on a nice solid boat and avoid this headache.

All stringers are structural support for the hull and the chances of that being the only rotted on a 40 year old boat are about.000001%.

If you can do the work yourself, less than 5 grand in material just to do the fiberglass repair. If you can only work evenings and weekend it will take 3 plus years. Once you get it apart you will (and should upgrade hoses, fittings and wiring) add another 3 or 4 grand, if you can do it yourself. Now since your doing that much you will want to upgrade the power, gauges, transmissions, drives and props. 50 or 60 grand, on the low side, if you can do most of the work yourself. My prices may be a little inflated because I'm in Canada and the exchange sucks but you get the drift.
bottom line, have $80,000.00 sitting in the bank to restore it, and don't plan on getting it wet for a long time.
Just my opinion, for what its worth

Run

read this thread then you decide.....
https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/...-38-resto.html

If you buy or own the boat next comes the financial and emotional pain of ownership.

Yep, let's not forget what happens after you "complete the project" You are then married to it and will spend nothing but the best for it. This sucks you into a financial death spiral, while the whole time you're just trying to do something you enjoy.

Don't fall in love with it, it will only hurt worse when you wake up one day and figure out what you've done. Walk away, and find a boat that doesn't need that. You will be much better off, ten fold.

I've been thru what you're about to do. Many others here have also. Ask them if their experience was any different than the above. I'll bet you the repair money they would agree.

While projects are fun and can be quite the adventure, these toys aren't the easiest. They are not hot rod cars - world's apart. If you can take what you're about to spend, throw it in the fire pit or lose it all in the stock market and it doesn't affect you, then by all means, have at it.

Here you go, this is a resto which you will be into if you do stringer repair. It's basically open heart surgery for a boat. This is one of the better threads ever on this site:

​​​​​​https://www.offshoreonly.com/forums/...che-scout.html

https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...2a19da6e1.jpeg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...a75396ae6.jpeg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...ee68f45f2.jpeg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.off...7f45b78d6.jpeg

you’ll basically want to nuke it and start over

Wheres the build thread on this one?

Welcome to OSO!

Loads of negative comments here and they're all correct. As nice as these old school boats are when fixed up, unless you have a well set up workshop, plenty of free time and can do most of the work yourself, it's not worth it.

You'll get plenty of info and followers here if you decide to proceed but sympathy will be scarce, you've been warned. Sorry.

RR

maybe I’ll put one together under the Chris craft section if I can gather up enough pics.