New guy in need of help.

Hello everyone,i am new to the boating seen and have some questions.
First a little background:Last year i bought a 1989' 16' 5" Cobia with a 115 Johnson outboard.When i bought the boat i thought i would just have to put in some seats.....BOY was i wrong.The floor was completely shot after i pulled the carpet up and found a "patch job" the P/O had done...so i dug a little deeper and what i found was a 1989' Cobia MESS !!!! The plywood was all rotten and the stringers have certainly seen better days. On a better note the engine runs really smooth.For the record i am dead set on fixing it so My first question is,to replace all the wood do i HAVE to separate the body half's ?And if so from what i can tell i pull out the rubber "bumper seal" then take all the screws out around the boat ? So then what ? How would i go about lifting the top off,how heavy will it be and should i be concerned with it breaking in half ? My next issue is that i am moving to Wyoming in late december so is it possible to have the rot replaced before then,working say 4-6 hours a day ? And what would a rough estament be on materials (IE) wood,fiberglass,screws,and whatever else would be needed ?Also can i completely remove all the wood then strip the hull smooth and flat then scuff it up with say 36grit then tarp it and leave it for about 11-12 months untill i move back after college if for whatever reason i could not get it finished in time,or would it warp and disfigure to much ? And lastly i would also like to repaint the boat since i will be so far into it,so whats protocall on prepping a boat for a repaint ?Lots of questions i know and i am sorry to slam them all on ya'll at once but the sooner i know the answers the sooner i can get on the water.Thanx a million.

 

Hello Meangreen,

Don't thank anyone too soon

If the interior is rotten etc it usually means you have to strip to the bare hull and fix everything up from scratch. You will have to check the transom as well, chances it's also soggy is almost a given.

I can tell you now it is one hell of a big job.

You will have to support the hull properly so that it doesn't deform until you have the internal structure redone.

The advantage is you can make the layout to suit your own preferences but keep in mind buoyancy, weight distribution, center of gravity and everything else that is important.

Planning is similar to a new building, there is plumbing, wiring, structure and a host of things to plan and take into consideration. Better start drawing stuff and make sure all fits.

Did I mention it is a big undertaking

Better get the consent of the other half as well. They are the reason most boats get new owners throughout the restoration process.

Good luck.

 

luckily enuff,my wife has given me the go ahead.So as far as that goes all is well.And i am eager and excited about taking on such a project.So any advise would be great.

 

dont think you need to seperate the halves of the hull as the floor will go in in 4 ft wide strips across the width....hack all the bad out and put in new floor supports .make sure you leave a run for water from all parts of the under floor to the drain .....paint the ply underneath with old paint or poly resin .. use 12mm or 1/2 in ply the best you can afford though I always use the cheap stuff .. ..scuff up the old glass fibre where it meets the sides with an angle grinder and glass and matt over the floor..put some paint in the resin to colour it 5 % .. You can spray the outside if you flat it down ..bit like a car but spray up and down from stern to front ..I use spraying enamel
I f you have all the floor out its not a big job to do the transom ..make it 1 1/2 in thick

A photo of your boat and problems would be usefull 4-6 hrs a day ....you will have it done in a week

 

ok,i will try and get pictures in the morning.Would it be easyer if separate the uper and lower sections of the boat to do the new stringers,and transom,then floor ?

 

it would be a very very bad idea to seperate the two ...its a lot of work ..you wont get it glued back right and the bottom half will be a big gelly to keep straight ...without a photo its difficult to say but sometime people cut some of the rear well away to gain access and then glass it back in ...lets see a photo.. and its transom ..stringer and then floor in that order .steve

I see you live in Arkansas where my wife caught a prawn allerge and Mr Clinton with his trouser snake Mr Beefy came from .....dont know why he ever resigned ..if he didnt put it inside her how did he have real sex with her ..????

 

ok,so i won't separate the 2.As far as the pictures go i will get some ASAP,i also need to rebuild the wood around the driver and passenger areas as they are water logged and week as well.

 

One of the boats I did I stripped any and all wood out and used fiberglass only. I used lightweight thin cardboard boxes and glassed them over to make stringers which I glassed in, no wood was used. It was more work, but the result was a lighter and in my opinion a stiffer boat.

Off late I use a 33kg/m3 closed cell foam as part of the structure. It acts as buoyancy, insulation etc etc. Won't work without it again. So if you want to make one very important decision then be it one that adds enough flotation so the boat can never go under. No boat can have too much flotation.

Just my wortless .za 2c

 

here are a few pictures....



best i could get today,but maybe ya'll can get an idea.

 

Ok,so i just spend some time stripping the rest of the carpet out of the boat.I also pulled the wood up the went under what i guess was seats,around the live well area in the very front.That was all but gone.The area around the front foot well area was also all but gone so that will also need replaced.So i guess where i am at is i need to replace all the wood in the boat.And as far as i can tell what i think is called the transom is in great shape.I will need to dig deeper to know for certain im sure.

 

good photos but a bit more pulled out would help us with the geography of the boat ....the floor stringers dont look too bad but rot will spread ...the idea of using urethane foam is very good but you will need lots of glass fibre which is more expensive than wood ....cardboard templates are usefull for transfering the shape to your ply ..remember you can always change the layout ....a picture of the whole boat is useful ..nothing on the internet ...The transom is the bit at the back the engine hangs on !!! rot starts at the bottom ..tap with hammer and listen for soggy thump !!!

 

I will finish ripping out the rest in the morning.I need to go get some cut off blade so i can separate the wood from the glass that ties it into the boat sides.I plan on going back just how the boat is laid out as i don't really know what,or why to change anything so that should make it a bit easier.

 

If you need to cut it it carnt be that rotten or its well made !!! I stripped all the wood from one boat recently with a block hammer and a shovel ..but the floor was 1/8 ply !!!!! the stringers just parted from the hull bottom ....when you get all the bad stuff out get in with a vacuum and shift all the little bits

Dont butt the stringers up to the transom leave a 1 inch gap remember drainage for water ....when the engine runs it pushes against the bottom of the transom so its the floor that takes the longitudinal load ,,,thats what need butting up to the transom and fixing well to the sides and stringers ...

 

I mean where the plywood is/was there are still some area's that are well attached.I think what i am gunna do is brace the under body really well,then strip it all down to flat smooth fiberglass,and revert back to my drawing that i made that shows where the stringers were originally.That should not be all that hard.My question now is where can i get marine plywood,what size sheets does it come in and about how much does it cost.And then what type of resin should i use ? How much will it take to do the job and about what does it cost ?

 

Are you sure the motor runs?