Water goes outside the Boat Right ?
 

So I started this year off by deciding to cut out one side of the floor in the engine compartment to replace it in my 1996 26' 280. I thought, it's no big deal and could easily have it done in a day and have the fiberglass be setting up by afternoon. Before I bought the boat two years ago previous owner had let some water sit in that corner which over time ended up making the floor a little soft once the water seeped down into the ply. Once I pulled the top poly sheet off to get to the Plywood the rabbit hole just kept getting deeper...

The more I dug the more chewing tobacco I kept finding in the form of stringers and floor. The engine compartment bulkhead and lower half was completely trash from moisture being trapped against it from the rear bench area getting wet. After cutting the complete rear bulkhead and engine compartment stringers out I started moving forward in search of stringers that have a nice sharp pop sound when you hit them. I decided to cut the floor out just up to where the front of the bench sits. The floor was nice and hard/dry/ and strong from there forward to the cockpit bulkhead. After doing so and checking the stringers that saddle the gas tank, I came to find more currently moist soft stringers.
From there I started cutting away feet after feet forward toward the cockpit bulkhead in search of solid dry main stringers.

At this point, I reached the forward cockpit bulkhead and still finding soft moist stringers. Through this demolition process I've found out several fatal problems with this boats lay out.

1) Stringers are not actually (encased) in fiberglass and resign. They are more or less wrapped in a 1708 Fiberglass which is somewhat porous. Water can easily seep right through it to penetrate the stringer.

2) There inst much of through holes so the boat can drain and breathe. There are several, but all stop at the rear engine bulkhead, except for one lower one that allows water to travel from the engine bay to the forward anchor locker under the false floor under the Bed. Depending on how the boat sits and how "well" these through holes were cut and fiber glassed, in case of my boat most were mostly closed from sloppy fiber glassing. So once water got in there was no way for it to get out or properly breathe to dry out.

3) Driver side main engine compartment stringer was laid so crooked it was about a complete inch off in the front Vs the back.

At this point I have decided to replace all the stringers from the bed bulkhead back, I'm planning to cut out both front benches in the v Birth tonight and start grinding to prepare for new stringers.
I'm planning on racing the boat possibly next year or even at the tail end of this year and are planning to go back with 3/4 ply AC fur stringers but to do a substantially better fiber glassing job to help reinforce and encase any wood from being able to get wet again.

As you can see in the pictures I have taken off the bow rail, swim platform, windshield, dash humps and fiber glassed the dash back along with molding in the rear intake vents. With 6 gallons of new paint and 4 gallons of clear and 2 weeks of wet sanding.
Add a new trailer on top of that and at least the outside looks the part. I'll post new pictures as I continue the work.

Here is the second round of Pics

overall shot of the boat on its new trailer

Been there and done that,looks good keep up the work and keep us posted on your progress.Lookin good

Doing something similar myself. I see you have the 'snow' in your pics too :D

She will be better than new. good job!

Things that make you go Hmmmmmmmmmmmm!

And ask yourself ..... Self, what the fock were they thinkin'. :eek:

Looks like you have a handle on it! Looks good.

Yes sireeeee Bob! Ops, I mean Bill.

It's clear Bill still wakes up in a cold sweat remembering that.:cool-smiley-027: I had a 1962 Owens 35 that had fun every where you looked.

Does anyone have any suggestions of keeping the water out of those areas, I have that problem as well, i've tried putting mini soccer balls in the vents but water still seems to find it's way to the corners of the engine compartment.. I know the obvious would be to keep it in a sheltered storage building, but living on an Island 21 sq. miles long and 3 miles wide that type of space is hard to come by..lol..and pretty pricy i might add..

quaberdeen, I just think that goes with owning a V....... Atleast for those of us that have to keep them out in the elements!!! I keep my as dry as I can!! The shop vac is my friend!!

Yes.........The things that make you go hmmmmmmmmmmm!!:evilb:


All in fun Peter!!:ernaehrung004:

Speeddemon, keep us updated on your progress!! I like seeing how projects like this turn out!! Good Luck!

Thanks DKerns

That is gonna leave a mark.DAYMMMMMMM

We're proud of our beaks! Even this dumb fock that let his boat sink at the dock kept his "Beak" from going under.

I heard he was a former Formula owner :eek:, so we really didn't want him anyways!!! ;)

Naw! Just bite me Billy :drink: !!!

Cute but not origional there PEEETEEEE.You bringin that scaredy cat killer down here this summer or what.:cool:

wow that's allot of glass work. For the record I don't know anything about doing glass work or roofing. So don't ask for my help.

Looks good can't waite to see the pics.

More Carnage
 

This weekends carnage, at this point I almost have a blank canvas. I already went and cleaned up the old glass seams from the stern to the cockpit bulkhead, just not shown in the pictures. In the second picture look, at the lower section of the picture and you can see how the stringers " match up" but are really about a inch off.

Check out my thread of my 30' in progress. I know what you mean when you ask WTF? when you mention a $hitty job on the stringers stringers.

I feel your pain!...:mad:

The beginnings of a Race Boat
 

Pics as of last night. Everything is sanded smooth and almost ready to dry fit new stringers and start laying glass.

I can almost smell resin. good job man:drink:

Lookin good,you should apply for a job at Velocity.:drink:

I guess the stringers are the obvious weak point in these boats. Had to replace the center stringer and starboard stringer in the engine compartment. Both were totally saturated, and the plywood delaminated.
Also the stringers under the cockpit were non existent. basically just two sheets of f/g with some gooey woodlike substance between them.
Not to mention the balsa core in the deck that had the outer 4-6 inches totally soaked and rotted. thats because the core was left exposed and not sealed around the perimeter( except for the paint over it and the rubrail screwed into the balsa. Ive never seen anything like it. None of the wood in this boat was sealed.

Had the transom replaced also by Rich sutphen Jr. He did an incredible job on it.

I have a bunch of pics of the carnage, but I'm unable to post them

Speeddemon, That's is a LOT of work. It will all be worth it when it is all doneNice Job.

Do you have any updates for us????

Not to Hi Jack, but I/we were wondering "who" Boxerboy was at the dinner a couple of months ago!! Now I see the "AKA Thong Fellow" Hope all is well!!!!

Yes it is I thought i would change my name till i get a new ride. The wifes idea since THONG FELLOW in Va somewhere.

BB...gettin old now that string starts to chafe doesn't it?

I dont know what your talking about steve.

Any updates???????

updates coming soon, been throwing most of my cash at building an engine, so soon as thats done, I'm going to focus back on the stringers , floor and layout.

sounds good keep us in the loop.:signs069:

Velocity is coming along, and since its tear down and start, It was re purposed as a P-5 race boat until lately. Due to the economy going down hill so has the value of my boat and my income. So the progress has slowed way down and with this also comes great deals on other boats........ I've decided to finish my Velocity as more of a poker run boat and add the Swedish Armada to the Fleet.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...9/DSC00245.jpg

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...9/DSC00246.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...9/DSC00247.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...9/DSC00248.jpg

little dirty still, but should clean up nicely..

Boat was taken to Glassdave out in Ohio this saturday and dropped off to have the new stringers, knee walls, bulkheads, and floors installed. I've decided to replace the transom with marine ply and the rest of the boat in composite board.
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...0/P1020152.jpg

I'll try to post pictures of the fiberglass work while its being done, should take about 6 - 8 weeks.

Updates
 

The transom has been bagged. The wood is 9 ply marine birch, all epoxy glass and Kevlar tabbed.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...469217-364.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...06-23-2011.jpg

A new mold was made for the engine hatch. Test fit well and strong piece. You can stand on it between two horses with no flex. Its has a 3/4" Diab H60 foam core with H80 ribs. The hatch was also made longer along with having the engine bulkhead moved forward to make lower blower pulley changes easier.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...-04-31_514.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...-07-15_633.jpg
http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i8...-07-30_636.jpg