Would You Use Hollow Stringers?

[Canivour]

I am replacing the deck and stringers of my recently aquired 1970 glastron v163 (16'). Most of the wood of the stringers is nothing but soggy sponge. I was curious if I could just remove the wood from the stringers, leaving what glass is already there, then put foam (or even just leave it hollow) in replace of the wood and re-glass the stringers.

I am son of a wood worker so I have access to a shop and tools with plenty of woodworking experience, yet I believe this done right could be stronger, lighter, and more easily done than replacing the wood with new wood.

Would you do it and if so how many layers on the stringers would be sufficient?

[TeddyDiver]

Without any calculations and just for myself :rolleyes: I'd leave them hollow, adding a bit of unidirectional S-glass (first in 0 deg. direction of the stringers and the thinnest +-45 I'd happen to have on top going wider on the sides) total amount being at least the same weight as the wood in the stringer had been or if some of the original grp is removed adding that weight too.
Not very pro solution but..

[PAR]

I wouldn't make you stringers hollow. Yes, the laminate is the bulk of the structure, but the wood acted as a core, preventing distortion of the separated areas of laminate, keeping them from collapsing or buckling under load, which would be an easy thing to do without a core.

Cut the stringers free, replace with similar dimension wood or other suitable core material, then re-tab the stringers back to the hull shell. Of course you'll want to insure good adhesive contact with the new core and any old or new laminate you install.

[Canivour]

yeah, im in the proccess of cuting right now...

[PAR]

If you're neat about cutting them out, you can reuse the tabbing and stringer shells. This assumes the new stringers will be pretty much the same dimensions as the old of course. This saves a fair amount of work and laminate bulking.