This message is to inquire about my floor in my boat. She was built in the early 60's(guess) and I pulled her out of a mudpuddle last year and have began restoring her. Miracle has had quite some interesting problems. They put rebar in for support of her cabin top and the fiberglass that it was encased was destroyed when it rusted! Yesterday I found that her floor in the section forward of the centerboard was delaminating. I started a careful demo and found that there was seaweed growing underneath a piece of plywood. Under the plywood there was some foam that was so soaked with water that it weighed about 55 lbs. I removed all of it and found a valve in the forward floatation copartment and cut into that also. It seemed very moist in there too. My question is in regards to hull strength. I thought about laminating bilge stingers or ribs and leaving the foam out so that air circulation will keep that glass dry. Has anyone had any experience with this? Ideas would be greatly appreciated as I sit here and hmm and haw about what to do next.
Eric J. Nelson (daysailor17-at-hotmail.com)