K.C. Walker wrote:The de-formation or hogging of the bottom of your boat sounds like what I had. When I removed my stringers some of that hogging was relieved. Of course I was suspending my boat from the gunwales so there was no weight on it in the bilge area. After coring, I still had to do a lot of fairing and filling on the bottom with lightweight filler especially forward of the transom. I think the boat is most susceptible to softening in the "planing surface", that is the flat hull section between the seats. That's where the boat rides on trailers and it is also the flattest and least supported part of the hull. Judging by the condition of your boat I would have to guess that the bottom is pretty soft.
I'm going to suggest that cedar is not a good wood for the purpose of carlins. The purpose of these is structural, i.e. to hold fasteners and to stiffen the side deck. Being that cedar is only a little better than balsa wood as a core for compressive strength even going with the through fasteners, fender washers, and nuts on the backside, it's still not going to be as good as something like plywood or hardwood. You would need to be very careful not to over torque your fasteners or you would risk de-laminating your glass on the backside. If you went with a three-quarter inch plywood and totally encapsulated it with epoxy you wouldn't need glass laminate on the outside, therefore saving that weight. I would guess that you would come out stronger and lighter (possibly the same weight), and it would hold fasteners much better. You would eliminate the need for through bolting.
Just some random Monday thoughts.
I appreciate the feed back. I have built a cradle to support the boat at the transom off of the trailer. I am hoping some of the deformation will go away when I grind out the stringers.
As for the cedar in the carlins your points are valid but I respectfully disagree with the over all assesment. The wood in the carlins cannot be to big of a load as the original woods is made up of several pieces about six inches long each. The biaxel glass in both a vertical orientation as between the pieces and on a horizontal axis in the final covering will be the structural part of the carlins. The cedar at this point is nothing more than a core and a form for the glass lay up. Cost and accessibility is the only reason I am using the cedar versus a traditional foam core. I am pretty sure that plywood encapsulated in glass would be heavier than the current proposed schedule. Remember the carlines are 1.5 inches thick by 1.5 inches tall except in the transom where they are slightly smaller.
I also discovered that when I flip the hull I will be having some fun with the centerboard. The more I lift the hull up the more the board comes down, but the handle ain't moving so I am going to have to assume the hole in the board has wallowed out or has seperated from the board.
This weekend will be a busy one. I want to get the underside of the deck sanded, the interior of the hull sanded, the carlins, stringers, and the rotted transom grounded out, and all of the foam removed. I am hopeing to be laying in stringers and carlines in two weeks. During the stringer construction I will use some furing strips from side to side clampped to the hull joint to ensure the hull stays in shape (I took measurements before disassembly). The general plan is to do the inside, flip the deck and do the top of the deck, reattach the deck to the hull and flip the whole thing and do the hull and centerboard. There is no doubt that both the hull and the deck are in a more fragile state while seperated so I do not want to risk damage to the hull flipping with the deck off.