Floor Repair

[VKRUE]

Hello RoburMarine:
I'm not trying to intrude here... seems that you have expert advice from M. Steiger.

I just wanted to say one thing that has not been mentioned.
Quote by RoburMarine: I am a novice at this and any help would be welcomed.

I noticed 3 (three) access covers in your pictures. You'll want to be sure to include these access covers when you reconstruct your soles. The cover to the fuel tanks fittings is particulurly important... and required by USCG regs.

Might also check out those fuel tanks and lines while your under there.

[mike steiger]

Hi,
Ditto on that.

[mike steiger]

Vic,
When I retire I want to get my hands on one of those old mahogany Chris-Crafts some day and do a restoration on it. Good luck with your boat.

[VKRUE]

Hey Mike,
My boat is not a Chris Craft... I trust you realize this. It's was built in 1960 by a "KAUFFMAN BOATWORKS" in Ospree Florida. It's just a plywood thingy but, I'm in love with it. If I'm successfull in my efforts this boat will look pretty sweet with mahogany verneer on the topsides and a painted hull & cabin.

Thanks for the luck.

[mike steiger]

Hi,
I knew it was not a Chris-Craft, that is just the boat I dream of someday owning and restoring. I tip my hat to you for what you are doing and when completed it will look great. Good luck with your boat.

[mydauphin]

General Comments
Why do companys that make decent fiberglass boats put floors of wood that will rot?

That said, either enjoy boat AS IS for a while (Inject some can foam strenghten the floor or take everything out and do it right. Chances are that when start taking rotten wood out you may not have much left. Then do it right. It looks like you have some removal panels there. Cut wood to size then epoxy to present panels and seal everything tight with epoxy.

[VKRUE]

Mydaupin:
It's not that WOOD rots. Cheap, improperly prepared wood rots.
My boat is all wood. Built in 1960. The hull is in excellent shape as is most everything else. It's been around now for 47 years. It's seen a bit of abuse in it's history but, overall... it was in decent shape when I bought it.

Many companys that make fiberglass boats use less than top grade wood for things such as stringers because they are going to encapsulate the wood inside fiberglass at which point who cares about the wood. You'll never see it and it will last many years... but when it's gone...IT'S GONE. AND YOU CANT SEE IT EITHER - THAT IT'S GONE.

[mike steiger]

Hi,
To answer your question as to why wood is used in floor's, decks and transoms, if this was all done in solid fiberglass you would have a boat that would be so heavy you would not be able to power it, but if you could your fuel bill would be astronomical. Wood is a good core material if you take the time to seal things up right. One method is to mark your holes for whatever fitting you wish to install, drill the hole oversized backfill with thickened resin and once this dries you can then put you screws in to secure your fitting and the screw will have cured epoxy around the perimeter. When I install scuppers, transducers or anything else into a transom, I use this method. By doing this properly water will never permeate the core material. Remeber that most production builders will not do this. Short of a vessel having an accident this is alway the culprit when it comes to water damaged cores, but the beauty of it is that all this can be avoided if we take the proper measures.

[mydauphin]

Your both right and wrong. True, it is a matter of what kind of wood, its encapsulation and how it is treated. As far as weight, I have had may a boat with no wood anywhere. I had a 1979 Glastron that I got ride of all floor wood. It all rot away and instead of getting plywood again and glassing over, I used wood as template and made fiberglass panels with honeycomb thing with no wood. It was alot more work. but it is still good 20 years later.

The only place for wood for me on a fiberglass boat is stringer and transoms, and those should be high quality marine woods covered in Fiberglass and/or epoxy.

By the way on flooring, a neat floor to build is a composite of aluminum and epoxy. Light and strong.

Also found out that wood rots from rainwater/Fresh Water. Saltwater corrodes everything else but not wood.

[mike steiger]

Hi all,
I guess your only refering to the floor and not stringers, transoms, and decks/gunnels. Steigercraft has been building a solid fiberglass floor for about 13 years now. Their stringer/bulkhead system is also solid glass(1990),their absolutely bullet proof floor is the result of much engineering, time and money to do so. If your stringer system runs 1/4-5/16 thick the plywood core is not much more than a form for the laminate. Steiger is a great boat(semi-custom) but also not affordable to everyone. You can get a very good result with wood if the proper measures and good technique are employed. The compression strength of ply is also very good,I like composites, but they are expensive and may not fall into everone budget for a rebuild. If you figure a boat with a wood/glaass floor lasted 10-15 years and fitting were installed without the proper preventive measure taken it would never rot if the methods described above were used.

[naturewaterboy]

I also have a boat that has some soft spots in the cockpit floor, and more up on the bow. Are there any light weight options for coring that would cost the same or less than plywood?

[mike steiger]

Hi all,

You can use coosa nautical 20 its about 50 percent lighter than ply,Kledgecell,or balsa. Between the three I would say the coosa is the best,it will run you a little more than marine ply of equal thickness. Good luck with your boat.

[jimslade]

You may want to look into Nida-core. I don't like wood anywhere in a boat, especially stringers. Most older wood boat were made out of cedar. Old grow cedar takes a long time to rot.