Enterprise renovation-partial cold mold

[nobrows1212]

Am looking for comments, especially PAR insights. Here's the deal-- the boat (fifty years old) is quarter inch mahogany marine ply over stringers of solid mahogany (they are in great shape.) The bilge panels are backed (inside) by three mahogany bilge battens (each side) of approx. 1 1/4" x 3/8", also in good shape. The other factor in play is that the bilge panels have butt-block type joints which seem a bit suspect due to the dried-out condition of the inside butt-blocking, although a previous owner ran a crosswise fiberglass and epoxy strip over the outside (bottom side) of the butt joints, which run perpendicular to the keel/keelson. I find that at my weight of 230# the bilge panels (as a floor) deflect enough to make me nervous, and their plywood has some areas of checking or deterioration through the thin surface ply on the exterior. Aside from the bilge panels, there is one additional panel (longitudinally) on each side between the bilge panel and the topside panel which meets the gunwale. Only the bilge panels have the slight deterioration areas. All fastenings appear to be in excellent shape, and stringers are very sound.

I could of course lay on fiberglass in epoxy over the bilge panels (and the keel board, which is only about 1/2" extended below the bilges), but I am contemplating making the boat's bottom "bulletproof". I am pondering cold molding kiln-dried sassafras planks of 3/16" thickness x 4" width onto the bilge panels, running them at 45 degrees to the keel line. Through the plank ends I would run screws into keelson and stringer. After embedding in epoxy, I would lay on a fiberglass strip straddling the outboard chine (sealing exposed edge of new planks); then feather; and last, overlay light fiberglass