[saltydog]

Otter,

After being in this bilge and boat for the better part of a month fulltime, I have become pretty familiar with it's structure. The stringers run aft and terminate with a 90 degree at the end of the fuel compartment. Under the deck there is a second set of stringers that run from just short of the transom forward. The two are connected at the 90 mark with a side to side 2 foot stringer. I think that Otto posted some pics before we put the new floor in that show that second set of stringers. This other set of stringers is extremely helpful in giving the sole, out towards the hullsides, support. These as you all know were filled with foam. There are two weep holes at the end of the fuel compartment stringers were the ply base meets the stringer. when we took out the tank we had to remove the bulkhead at the end of the tank. This was glassed in over the weep holes in the stringer. These need to be open. After removal we noticed moisture coming from this area. When we looked further we noticed that they were holes and proceeded to open them up. With that out came the water that had been holed up in there. As we thawed out the boat more moisture was released. Again, these holes need to be open. They were cut out but glassed over trapping the water inside. The water diversion channels on each side of the tank were also cut off with glass by the bulkhead, again trapping water, now in the fuel compartment. You will see whan Otto posts the pics of the new bulkhead that we have cleared the channels and allowed for a much larger flow area.