Harry Homeowner bldg materials

I am repairing an old skiff that had a saturated honeycomb hull bottm and rotted transom. For the deck repair, what are the pitfalls in using ppt plywood and styrofoam. I'm thinking about sandwiching the foam between the ply and Fiberglass bottom with epoxy.

[gonzo]

If you plan on laminating ppt plywood, I recomend marine type. The one at the lumber store has a high water content and won't glue properly.

Thanks for the reply. I went ahead and bought the run-of-the-mill hardware store type before I saw your message, and while drying it out in my cozy shop it warped into a doughnut. I tortured it flat and epoxied it in place this weekend. So far so good. I probably should of used marine grade but I'm incredibly cheap, and did not forsee the extreme warping. About the only thing I splurge on is epoxy. I can't use vinyl resin in the winter as my shop is below my kitchen and the smell of burning polyester is a divorcible offense. That same national hardware store had marine 3/4 at 59.99 a sheet. I bought a sheet for the transom, although it did not look like anything special, I could detect voids, and I wonder if they weren't overstating the product. I epoxied the foam onto the hull first, minus a dozen 2" x 3" squares into which I epoxied blocks of the PPT. This gave me something solid (I had hoped) to screw the ppt sheet down to while the epoxy dried. I know this all sounds a bit silly but it was a "found dead on the beach" boat, that I've already managed to sink $150.00 into, and theres still thwarts and rub-rails to go.

[duluthboats]

Pictures would be nice.

Gary

[midnightkayaker]

I tried to post photos last time but we have some pretty tough firewalls here at....um..."work". I might of missed a critical protocol or whatever. I'll try again..before viewing these photos I want to make it abundantly clear that this was an experiment and in no way should represent an approved construction method...kids, don't try this at home.

[midnightkayaker]

Hey that worked, I'll take a shot of the new deck tonight and post tomorrow. Here is a shot of what it looked like when I cut the deck out.

[duluthboats]

Nice looking boat for found on the beach. For a boat like this using CDX is just fine as long as you keep it sealed and you don’t hang too big a motor on it. I’m curious about the ribs, are they steel? I assume the chine log is glass over foam. This is where the stiffness in the boat comes from. This is also where you may have big problems if it has delaminated. If it has there may not be much holding the boat together. The only good fix would be to remove and replace.

Gary

[midnightkayaker]

The Ribs and the chine logs are built up fiberglass and appear to be quite solid. The honeycomb extended underneith the chine logs. The original portion of the fiberglass deck, located under the logs, remain. So the Hull on one side and the original deck bottom plus the portion visible in the photos create box beams that are solid and well attached to the hull. I scraped under the logs to clear out the rotted honeycomb and shaped the foam to fit under. I slid the foam under the logs with a liberal glop of epoxy. In retrospect this probaly should of been wood instead. When I was first cleaning the boat and uncovered the rot I cored holes into the chine logs front and back and flushed with a pressure hose, this yielded a very small amount of detritus but not nearly enough to indicate that they had originally been filled, which I found curious. The foam brought the level of the deck up to the bottom of the logs and the 1/2" ppt ply is cut to butt up against the lower side of the logs and has a good fillet bond. I have been intending to drill holes in the top of the logs and fill with expanding foam. Of course I've never actually worked with real expanding foam (only the home insulation and firestopping type that comes in a can) so I'm all ears on advice. I've done some quick guest-a-mates on the total volume of the boat and came up with approx 6.5 cubic feet. This yields some 400 lbs of bouyancy (swamped) the hull will clock in around 300 #s and I'm not real comfortable with the Factor of Safety once a small outboard is mounted up. I'd like to close in 2 cubic feet on the stern and one in the bow but I've really got to put the brakes on this project as my friend originally was just planning on a transom replacement and never really intended to "buy a boat". He is not a small man and I wouldn't bet on his ability to swim more than 100'. His plan was to bring the boat back to life, round up a 3-5 hp kicker and fish the protected waters of Nanjemoy creek. I'm wrestling with the obligation of ensuring that he has a safe craft, and my reluctance to spend money that neither one of us planned on. Shucks I was just going to do the work in exchange for a few goats and some fencing.
I had a similiar experience last summer when I bought a Newport Blue Crab (11' sloop) for $300 Sails, Rig, Hull and trailer. I spent another $300 in epoxy and hardware and I haven't even touched the trailer yet. So my recurring lesson in small boat refurbishing is; There is always more to be done than meets the eye. I'm not sure why I enjoy it so much but I'm completely hooked, wife says obsessed. I like to think that I'm just building up my skills before building the "Big One".

More photos tomorrow.

If there is a more appropriate place on this Forum for my ramblings please advise.

when is the next high tide due in? :-)

[midnightkayaker]

For those with nothing better to do here are a few photos of the skiff. It's nearly completed, I just have to mount the transom plate and knees, quick coat of enamel and shape and install the new thwarts. This project took around $300 and 60 hours, not counting the time just standing in my shop, looking at it, wondering what the #e!! I was doing. The time was well invested as my epoxy skills have increased, particularly working on vertical and inverted surfaces. The nice thing about refurbishing a fishing skiff is nothing has to look pretty, it just has to be capable of doing a days fishing.

[midnightkayaker]

OK..I'll try again, Here are a few photos of the nearly completed skiff