how much rott have you found in the forward stringers, curious i have 86' 30 ft panther that i had done the stringers to the gas tank bulk head and the transom.

The two inner stringers and the left outer stringer are rotten to the 2nd bulkhead. The right outer stringer is rotten up to the 3rd bulkhead. I'm counting them from the bow to the stern.

Finally had a chance to get back to work on it today. I was able to get the right Inner Stringer glassed in as well as the rear Bulkhead...



And some Engine Goodies...

The satisfaction of doing it yourself can't be measured.........the job looks great!

Thanks scippy, we got the left inner stringer glassed in today. I had to order more cloth.
I'm not a big fan of how the bottom of most (if not all) boats have drains leading from up front into the engine compartment. This one had a 3/4" pvc pipe connecting the bottom of the front of the boat with the engine compartment underneath the gas tank. I'm doing away with all this. There will be no hole in the bottom of the front of the engine room. All the dirty bilge water can slosh around the bilge and not travel up front. This boat will be spending its life under a roof anyways and there wont be any drainage needed to go back to the engine compartment. I'm going to do something about keeping water from the cockpit from draining down around the sides of the fuel tank. Man I hate trying to post from this iphone lol

If you leave the pipe in, you can just install a plug in the engine bay side. That way you can simply remove the plug if you ever need the pipe.

good idea!

I think no drain from forward areas to bilge is a very poor idea. Inevitably, water will get in to forward areas through leaks around cleats, rubrail, deck hatches, bow light, rain water through cover, etc.. With no drain, once it is in, it is in. With no air circulation in those areas it will take forever to evaporate.

If you have a properly placed bilge pump setup there should be minimal water in the bilge at any time. This would eliminate the thought of water sloshing from the bilge forward?

Great Idea spazboz. I might just do that. This boat will likely never see rain while I own it. The only time it would possibly see rain would be on trips to the gulf. The cleats, bow lights, and the joint between the deck and the hull are the only forward places water could get through, and they will be sealed well.

The bilge pump is mounted on the flat area in the front part of the engine compartment. It takes prolly a gallon of water in the bilge to raise the float up high enough to turn on the pump. The pipe going forward was slightly lower than the bilge pump. When you throttle down, any water in the bilge is going past the pump, thru the pipe under the tank, and under the boat interior.
I don't know, looks like I might be following spazboz advice. That would be pretty easy to do.

Got 4 more stringers cut out today. Waiting on more fabric to get here. Hope to get the rest of the stringers back in by next weekend..


I decided to do a little to the 454 330's. I've got Lunati 10110702 cams, lifters, better valve springs, new timing sprockets and chains, and some edelbrock air gap intakes. We plan to get the hull back in one piece before we jump into the engines..