What was thought to be a minor repair (soft floor in front of shower) has turned out to be a complete stringer rebuild.

A few questions for the forum are:

1. Has anyone had any personal experience replacing stringers from stern to bow on sport cruiser or similar type of boat?
2. Should marine grade plywood be utilized or should a newer composite materail be used instead?
3. If composite material is the best alternative, what kind of material?

Any or all suggestions are welcome.

Thanks,

Bash

great post ......similar problem in a fountain for me too let me know what u come up with.

That sucks pretty badly. Although you can't automatically blame Fountain it does sound suspect about something. In reality there's no logical reason to make stringers out of anything organic in any way. They should be made from materials incapable of rotting.

Good luck in your repair.

You might want to check out this website...www.rotdoctor.com....seems like a lot of people had good luck with it...Jim

You are correct that this is not automatically a Fountain problem, however, I still was very surprised to find how water must have seeped into the stringers located in the front of the boat.
In Fountain has been supportive in the reconstruction of this 15 year old boat offering their technical expertise to help correct this serious problem with a great boat.

The Fountain rep told me that the material used to make stringers in produciton today is primarily marine grade plywood, however, when they need to "get the weight out..." they use a composite.

Hi Ric, Donna told me about your rot problem. Sorry to hear your summer boating is on hold. Here is a product that looks good for stringers. You cut the top off the stringers, clean out the rotted wood and pour this in. Callen used this stuff to build the transom in their deep v turbine powered boat. Wood and fiberglass deflected too much.http://www.invisionboatworks.com/seacast.html If you need help with something heavy or mechanical give me a call. Ian Blain

Thanks for the offer. As I get into this "offseason" project, I will keep in contact.

Recent moisure reading by Great Lakes Fiberglass indicate that the wood in the engine compartment is "OK".
After removing the forward cabin interior, I should have a better view of the stringers in the mid section (below cockpit) and determine if the rot has crept that far.

How many people get the hose inside there fibreglass boat to hose it out.Freshwater is the cause of all rot related issues.Salt water cures things,like salted beef.Where i boat there is no fresh water.I would take my boats out and fill them with salt water and then pump it out.Any screw that penetrates the timber allows water to enter.Over there you have lots of fresh.It should be more of an issue.Think of an old log on the bottom of a salt water river.It's bloody heavy but not rotted.The fungi that cause dry rot can't live in salt.Hope this helps.

Had not really thought of salt water that way...

Thanks for the post.

I had the same problem with an older Fountain. Lots of rot around the area where a head was placed. I found a lot of the stringer material wasn't even marine grade plywood but just exterior grade common plywood such as "cdx". Cut it out and install new ply using a good epoxy and cloth.