I did no foam on my Sunsport and it has worked well. I used all 2x material for stringers and cross braces attached to each other and the hull. I went with epoxy resin from US Composites and also used CPES on all my wood. I agree on the limber holes...put four in my main stringers and every cross brace had the corner cut out. For the structural work I used the DBM 1708 biaxial fabric...for the deck and other areas not needing as much strength it was mat and cloth.
All of you and your responses rock... I know that It has all been asked before, but I fear that mine may somehow be different. My love affair with this boat goes back almost 30 years, and I want it to go on another 30. My wife always thinks that the boat is too small, too low to the water, too old, and every other excuse to push me toward a boat that wasn't designed for skiing... This is the boat of my passion and I can't wait to roll up my sleves and finally finish it. The whole industry is coming back around to this hull design, because it just works. And this one will be mine. If any of you are around Norris Lake in Tennessee, send me a PM and drop by. I'm in Deerfield Resort which is closest to La Follette.
It may be too late, but a word of caution about using pressure treated wood: there is a consensus on some of the other forums that pressure treated wood is inadequate as stringers. Number one is that there isn't sufficient evidence that the epoxy and glass adheres well to the pressure treated wood. Also, you may have read that clear Douglas Fir was (and still is) the wood of choice for stringers. 2x pine will certainly not give you the strength that Doug Fir will.
With that said, others make stringers out of foam and wrap them in fiberglass. You've got to assume that wood wrapped in fiberglass is stronger than that...
My suggestion is that you take a look at the other stringer threads here and on the other boat forums as well. Read the threads, look at pics, and post your own pics here.
It is a time consuming, frustrating, but very rewarding process.
AFAIK, the treated lumber is a worry if it's wet/fresh. It sounds like OP has probably dried his out enough to not need to worry about it.Quote:
Originally Posted by jeff_in_ny
I used laminated marine plywood for my stringers but that was just dumb luck instead of some kind of divine plan.
For the record, I used all doug fir in my rebuild.
I bummed my pressure treated from my Brother In Law's lumber shed for my stringers, so it was not only dry, it was likely the "old way" of pressure treating lumber (better). I fiberglassed them in 2009, and the boat has been stored since. I feel that if I can hit everything again with CPES, I've definitely got a dry point to pick back up on. Now if I can only find all of the parts!
you can thin poly resin with acetone to achieve similar results as CPES. i don't know about epoxy. epoxy is great but your hull is made of poly and the stringers have already been attached. imo, epoxy for just the floor is probably overkill but you're not talking about very many gallons at this point.
i also used US Composite and if memory serves it was the 635. you'll mix resin and hardener when fiberglassing. if you haven't messed with it before you should practice on a scrap piece of wood first. it's not terribly difficult but there's a learning curve.
Took the heads off of my 351 yesterday to make sure it had held up well since 2007. Looks perfect. Pulled 6 years of parts and a moves worth of miscellaneous "stuff" out to uncover the skeleton of what I hope will be my running Ts6m Comp by spring. Thinking seriously about using Coosa Bluewater 20 3/4" board instead of wood for my floor. Think I could pull it off with 2 4x8 sheets (pricy at $300 a sheet, but "do it once and do it right"?). Here it is with the stringers glassed in. Attachment 12951