New boat owner!

[Vandalizer]

I'm trying to figure out the floor but you know how it goes, once you start picking at the scab it only gets worse. Which is shown in this picture where I currently am. I'm going to throw the false floor back in with some new carpet for this Memorial day weekend then slowly dismantle the floor back area and inevitably the rear boxes. I'm just gonna take it apart in sections so I can still have me and a passenger for the weekends and make all of the wooden pieces then spend a week and fiberglass them all in.......here's a picture of progress.

Whoa, whoa whoa!!!! Are you ripping up the core too?!? It was all wet? If that's the case (looks like that in the pictures) you won't want to have that thing out until the core is replaced- that's what gives the boat a good deal of its strength.

 

[groundloop]

That's a nice looking boat. I hate for you that it's got issues with rotted wood inside, but better to fix it now than later.

I got a sinking feeling looking at your photo and reading your description of the wet foam and rotted deck and stringer. That's kinda' how my '79 Eluder started out http://checkmate-boats.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15673 The previous owner said there was a soft spot in the forward deck, but that everything else was solid. Once I dug into it I found the soggy foam, rotten stringers, rotted wood on the flotation boxes (part of which is a transom knee and very important structurally), wet transom, etc. etc. etc. It's obvious it had sat outside uncovered for a good length of time.

Anyway, while your at it you need to check your transom. Once water gets into a boat it spreads like a cancer.

 

[rickfenn1]

Yes I am pulling up the stinger and the core but I'm gonna have to say i pulled up all of whats missing with my hands. The center stringer was just a rotted skinny piece of wood FLOATING in the center of the foam....not fiberglassed to the boat at all. Therefore not providing anything structural at all. and the rear core piece i pulled the carpet off of it and 3/4 of the board came with it then i just grabbed it and took the rest of the pulp of a core out with 2 fingers. So it's unfortunately been that way for many years. I don't think you guys would want to hear what someone had done to one of the rear boxes but I'm gonna tell you anyways....haha Apparently they couldnt find a place for the tilt and trim motor/reservoir so they cut one of the boxes open scooped out some of the foam and threw it in there, amazing I know. Where to they usually stay? next to the gas tank? I do promise to bring it back to sound I promise. It's just gonna take some learning of boat structure and fiberglassing. Which is why I've been planted in the overhaulin' forum for some time now.

 

[groundloop]

Yes I am pulling up the stinger and the core but I'm gonna have to say i pulled up all of whats missing with my hands.

I think what we have here is a failure to communicate!

What you're calling "core" is floatation foam, it's required in boats under 21 ft. When TopEnticer (and everyone else here) refers to "core" it's the end-grain balsa which is sandwiched between the inner and outer fiberglass skins which make up the hull. Building a hull like that is obviously more time consuming and expensive, but it makes the hull incredibly strong. Checkmate did a really great job building their hulls, you hear of very very few problems with the balsa core (normally only when some idiot drills holes through one of the skins and allows water to get into the balsa.

 

[Vandalizer]

GL- doesn't it look like the core is coming up too from that picture? The foam is already up back to the flotation boxes, and under that foam there's wood coming up.

 

[rickfenn1]

I can just feel how new I am to this.... The balsa core is prefectly fine. Bad picture sorry. I stopped at the foam, I keep mixing up the names of the hulls part.

 

[Vandalizer]

Good, glad to hear it!

 

[rickfenn1]

Yeah, sorry about that. haha. I also didn't press reload fast enough to see your posts before responded. Then I couldn't edit it because this forum doesn't allow that after a certain amount of time. I see the foam is a two part urethane foam. I feel like I don't see many people replacing this when they do their restorations am I correct?

 

[miweisberg]

Getting on plane...

Hello everyone. Just took out my '88 Spectra with a Johnson 150GT and could not get her on plane. Ran around with my bow reaching the ski it was embarrassing. I have electric trim and just cant seem to get my nose down in a reasonable amount of time. Any advice?

 

[rickfenn1]

hmmm........I see you're new to the forum, and possibly forums in general. haha. you have to make a new topic. Not post a reply in a previously made thread. That may help getting your problem answered quicker.

 

[groundloop]

I see the foam is a two part urethane foam. I feel like I don't see many people replacing this when they do their restorations am I correct?

I don't know about everyone else but I put new foam in. One advantage of using it (besides being legal) is that it adds stiffness to your deck (assuming it's in contact with the underside of the deck). Ya' just gotta' make sure that water can't never ever never contact the foam, assume that water WILL get into your boat, and make provisions for the water to drain to the bilge (where it belongs - at least until you can dry the bilge out at the end of the day).