1982 Ski Supreme Rebuild (stingers, transom, etc)

Hello All,

I am new to the forum and looking for some assistance. Last year my baby brother decided he needed a boat. A couple years ago, I finally gave my 1988 Rinker 210 to my dad and bought my dream boat--2008 Cobalt 220. I digress...My family's best times are on the lake. So, I naturally understood my brother's desire. After many months of searching, he finally found a "great" deal on a 1982 (it may be an '83) at a dealership near Austin. This was about mid-March 2009. That Saturday, we inspected it, test drove it, haggled and struck a deal. The boat had normal dock bites here and there. It needed a new interior; no worries there, I just replaced the entire interior on my Rinker a year earlier and over ordered marine vinyl and carpet by more than double. The floor was just replaced and completely fiberglassed in. The engine was a PCM 351 with 220 hrs on it. Compression was great, it fired right up. We towed that boat home feeling great smiling the whole way.

That following Tuesday as my girlfriend and I were watching a movie, my brother called to tell me, "Houston we have a problem." He was replacing a blower switch when he noticed a bunch of what he described as broken wood deep in the cavity where the blower was. He sent me some pictures and..... yep, we bought a boat in need of a stringer and transom replacement.

I drove to my brother's house a couple weekends later after busy season was over (April 15th deadline). Over the next several weekends, we began the task of separating the boat, cutting the floor out, cutting the stringers out, cutting, cutting, cutting.

Then boating season 2009 began, my brother got busy with his college load, I switched jobs and got busier than usual. And, a hurricane was mixed in there, too. I bought a house on the lake last July. My brother towed the bottom half of the boat to my house at my request. Then I made partner at my office and got even busier.

So, here we are. It is after April 15th 2010 a year later. I desperately want to get this boat finished for my brother. I love to slalom, so I have a bit of a self-interest in it, too (skiing behind my boat on a slalom with my wake is a bit daunting). I have ground out the floor, cut new stringers and am now facing the task of ordering fiberglass.

I obviously need advice. I am a big do-it-yourselfer. I am a bit lost about what type of layup schedule I should be using and the type of fiberglass--mat, roving, etc. I have researched several threads, websites and have 5 fiberglass books. I cannot find any one source that says put 3 layers of biaxial tape, 1 layer of mat, and done, etc. Any advice on how much material I should order? There are two stringers that are 13 feet long and 6 inches most of the way. There are some "side" stringers that are just regular 2x4x8s--one on each side. Boat is 18 feet long and 6 feet wide at its widest point.

The transom was full of water and worm dirt when we cut into it. Since the boat is an inboard, the transom was naturally not very thick. In fact, it was done in two parts-an upper transom and a lower transom. The original was just chopped blown glass and very thin. It appeared that the transom was just two quarter inch thick pieces of plywood glued together and glassed in. My question is the following: Can I just redo the transom in only fiberglass 1/2 inch thick with added support and backer plates where the u-bolts and ski deck mount to it?

Also, the boat was only filled with poured foam in the bow. Does this need to be replaced? If so, should I pour foam in under the sole, too?

Any other thoughts, suggestions are welcome. Thank you for reading.

 

They have been using wood underfloors and in transoms for as long as who know how long and the wood always goes rotten and or gets water logged etc etc .
Make all the underfloor structure out of glass and you wont have to worry about it even again !!. and resin coat the whole area to seal the water and dampness away from everything .

 

The bottom line is...... are you really sure on what type of resin you are going to use at this point because the resin that you decide to use will play a major role on what type of fabric that is needed depending on weather it is Epoxy /poly /or vinyl and with that in mind i hope you are planning to fully encaspsulate the stringers ?