LeifThor
Member III
I’ll summarize the problem, and then give more details.
I have a 1972 35-2 that needs at least one stringer completely replaced located under the floor in the middle of the cabin.
I may need to replace the only other stringer running across the cabin located just in front of the engine (the engine is under the seatee in the cabin area instead of being located under the cockpit).
And I need to repair at least 3 of what appears to be sheared partial stringers (I say partial because these 8 only run from the side of the boat in a couple or few feet).
Somewhere in the boat’s history it may have run aground, and I found one report of a vessel assist 3 miles offshore taking on water, outcome being water pumped out and she was towed to port. The reported situation may have been an outcome after the unreported first situation.
I need to know-
1. If this job is better done while the boat is in the water, or on dry dock given the hull flex from either situation. I’m aware of the problems that can come from repairing a stringer if the hull shape isn’t in its right or natural shape (which can result in bulges in the hull or the repair popping out).
2. Should I use marine ply or a solid piece of teak, or if another material what and if so, where best to purchase it?
3. Could there be hull stress fractures on the outside of the hull at the joint between hull and keel if a sailboat is sailed without proper stringers attached. No rigid brace between hull and keel resulting in possible flex of keel. The bottom was painted prior to purchase so won’t know for sure until old paint is stripped a year out from now.
4. Is a stringer replacement/repair so difficult a problem to solve (getting the hull to its right position for the replacement/repair) it’s easier to get another boat?
Now for more detail about this 35-2 which may provide clues to one or two answers here.
Two owners ago, (when the incidents happened) she was owned by a woman who had a reputation of not knowing how to sail. She spent a fair bit of money on some good hardware for the boat, yet also had a number of repair jobs done by kind neighbors that we’re executed in the worst way possible.
When I bought the boat she had-
1. A cracked at base mast.
2. An engine that barely ran and was jury rigged and ready to explode (atomic 4).
3. Cracked floors around the bilge access plates (2).
4. Creaky floors
Since purchasing her, I’ve-
1. Replaced most of the engine (water pump, alternator, gas tank, control cables, carburetor, fuel pump, fuel filter, hoses, added water strainer, and replaced the entire exhaust system.
Engine runs fine though she’s been through a lot of shotty jury rigged fixes, so she’s a wee bit tired and will need a rebuild in a couple years.
Shortly after purchasing her, while cleaning out the area below the floors, which were thick in engine grease and soot or dirt making up a layer throughout the bottom of the hull under the cabin floor (no grease was found on the underside of the cabin floor), the stringer for which this post is responsible, lay in delaminated pieces, leaving only fiberglass tabs where it was attached to the hull still in place. Spraying water below the floors simply knocked over the already detached and delaminated remnants left. Once removed it also exposed a section below the cabin floor that had not been seen since the boat was built. To even get to this area to spray below the cabin I had to remove a water bladder that laid below the floor that I can only assume was a back up for long journeys some decades prior. It was leaking and attached to the water system so as long as there was water in the tank, it was partially filling the bladder which had been leaking for possibly decades. The result being a waterlogged worthless rotted stringer that was completely delaminated.
I have no idea how many times she’s been sailed without effective stringers. I have no idea how many owners she’s had. But I’m positive I was the first eyes to see under the floors between the stringer next to the engine and the stringer that fell over in pieces which amounts to a section roughly 4x7ft.
Inside was a section of hose going nowhere, odd nuts and bolts laying on the floor, a glasses case completely rusted, and a whole lot of wet moldy rotten smell. Combining a slow leaking water bladder with a section of bilge area underbelly completely cut off from access created the rotten delaminated stringer.
I know I’ll need to cut a hole in the floor to replace the stringer, and I’d do it anyway since a boat shouldn’t have inaccessible areas. I was surprised at purchase it didn’t have an access plate there.
Anyone who’s dealt with this problem and solved it successfully or unsuccessfully I’d really like to hear from the most. And if so as much detail of your success or failure replacing your stringers.
Thanks!
I have a 1972 35-2 that needs at least one stringer completely replaced located under the floor in the middle of the cabin.
I may need to replace the only other stringer running across the cabin located just in front of the engine (the engine is under the seatee in the cabin area instead of being located under the cockpit).
And I need to repair at least 3 of what appears to be sheared partial stringers (I say partial because these 8 only run from the side of the boat in a couple or few feet).
Somewhere in the boat’s history it may have run aground, and I found one report of a vessel assist 3 miles offshore taking on water, outcome being water pumped out and she was towed to port. The reported situation may have been an outcome after the unreported first situation.
I need to know-
1. If this job is better done while the boat is in the water, or on dry dock given the hull flex from either situation. I’m aware of the problems that can come from repairing a stringer if the hull shape isn’t in its right or natural shape (which can result in bulges in the hull or the repair popping out).
2. Should I use marine ply or a solid piece of teak, or if another material what and if so, where best to purchase it?
3. Could there be hull stress fractures on the outside of the hull at the joint between hull and keel if a sailboat is sailed without proper stringers attached. No rigid brace between hull and keel resulting in possible flex of keel. The bottom was painted prior to purchase so won’t know for sure until old paint is stripped a year out from now.
4. Is a stringer replacement/repair so difficult a problem to solve (getting the hull to its right position for the replacement/repair) it’s easier to get another boat?
Now for more detail about this 35-2 which may provide clues to one or two answers here.
Two owners ago, (when the incidents happened) she was owned by a woman who had a reputation of not knowing how to sail. She spent a fair bit of money on some good hardware for the boat, yet also had a number of repair jobs done by kind neighbors that we’re executed in the worst way possible.
When I bought the boat she had-
1. A cracked at base mast.
2. An engine that barely ran and was jury rigged and ready to explode (atomic 4).
3. Cracked floors around the bilge access plates (2).
4. Creaky floors
Since purchasing her, I’ve-
1. Replaced most of the engine (water pump, alternator, gas tank, control cables, carburetor, fuel pump, fuel filter, hoses, added water strainer, and replaced the entire exhaust system.
Engine runs fine though she’s been through a lot of shotty jury rigged fixes, so she’s a wee bit tired and will need a rebuild in a couple years.
Shortly after purchasing her, while cleaning out the area below the floors, which were thick in engine grease and soot or dirt making up a layer throughout the bottom of the hull under the cabin floor (no grease was found on the underside of the cabin floor), the stringer for which this post is responsible, lay in delaminated pieces, leaving only fiberglass tabs where it was attached to the hull still in place. Spraying water below the floors simply knocked over the already detached and delaminated remnants left. Once removed it also exposed a section below the cabin floor that had not been seen since the boat was built. To even get to this area to spray below the cabin I had to remove a water bladder that laid below the floor that I can only assume was a back up for long journeys some decades prior. It was leaking and attached to the water system so as long as there was water in the tank, it was partially filling the bladder which had been leaking for possibly decades. The result being a waterlogged worthless rotted stringer that was completely delaminated.
I have no idea how many times she’s been sailed without effective stringers. I have no idea how many owners she’s had. But I’m positive I was the first eyes to see under the floors between the stringer next to the engine and the stringer that fell over in pieces which amounts to a section roughly 4x7ft.
Inside was a section of hose going nowhere, odd nuts and bolts laying on the floor, a glasses case completely rusted, and a whole lot of wet moldy rotten smell. Combining a slow leaking water bladder with a section of bilge area underbelly completely cut off from access created the rotten delaminated stringer.
I know I’ll need to cut a hole in the floor to replace the stringer, and I’d do it anyway since a boat shouldn’t have inaccessible areas. I was surprised at purchase it didn’t have an access plate there.
Anyone who’s dealt with this problem and solved it successfully or unsuccessfully I’d really like to hear from the most. And if so as much detail of your success or failure replacing your stringers.
Thanks!
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