'78 Searay... cont.

[jtybt]

That's the gist of my 'LITTLE' project.

The next 'Little' project was a SS exhaust system that has been an ongoing 'prototype' over the last few years. Hopefully I got it licked. Photos to follow...I guess in the welding project section.


Thanks for watching.

[dgarnier]

how about a few details of what your all doing to her?

[jtybt]

Well, the more of the rotted wood I removed, the more I found. This was the proverbial 'Can of Worms'.

...and as long as I was taking everything out, I figured I might as well build the innards to be a better fishing boat.

I raised the cockpit(deck) above the engine so there would be a larger fishing area and that made it possible to make two large fish boxes that could fit a dozen 30 lb tuna in each side.

[dgarnier]

why did you opt for a plywood core?
What type of epoxy and cloth did you use?

I did a smaller version of this on my trojan 10 meter - turned out to be a lot more work, but in the end I was glad I got the experiance of working with fiberglass

[jtybt]

That's not wood core. It's the stringers and bulkheads. Plywood is strong and rigid and it is many times stronger than what the factory put out...but that's another story.

This isn't the first time working on boats. I've done a couple cabin/hard tops. I used Tap Plastic's marine epoxy. Been using it for almost 20 years. I tried the whole gambit of epoxies over the years and Tap Plastic has all of them beat.

I also added 12' of roving to the inner hull, then 10' for the second layer, then 8' and 6' for 4 layer under the engine for added support. All of the wood surfaces are covered in at least 2 coats on epoxy and some are covered with fiberglass cloth, depending on what the exposed surface may be exposed to.

I also din not and never would use foam in the construction. From the boats I've worked on, I consider foam the be one of the major contributors to wood failure if an water gets past any barrier coat, and believe me, few manufactures properly seal the inner surface of wood and few even try to protect whatever screw or bold holes that are used to attach anything in or on their boats.

[dgarnier]

Looking at the cockpit deck - looks like plywood to me. Using plywood like that is not as strong as if it were on edge. Why not use an end grain balsa wood core and then fully glass it in?