Quote:
Originally Posted by martin
.... until I saw that the Center stringer or Keel Is wood with glass over it. and allthough it is solid It is saturated with water and there are void foward that are holding water... I need to address. With that said i am going to remove the Liner and Jig the boat up.Or visa-versa..
What do you guys think about replacing that Keel ... Will the boat deform? should I replace in sections?? How can I replace with out damaging the shape of the hull? Whoops I said 76 when it is a 73 20Sf
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Martin - I wouldn't worry about the keel. There are several layers of glass over it which provide most of the strength, so even if the wood were totally rotted, it has minimal effect on stiffness. Some guys have even replaced that keel with half of a ~2-3" PVC pipe to allow for drainage from the front with no ill effects. Might want to drill some holes into the void to drain the water, but other than that, I wouldn't worry about it. If you'll click on the Classic SeaCraft Home down at the bottom right of the page and then go to the Literature section, check out the 1969 Boating magazine article on the Seafari 20. If you can't read it, send me a PM with an e-mail address and I'll send you an Adobe file of the article. It has a very detailed description of the laminate schedule (number of layers of glass and type/weight of each layer) that will give you a good idea of how these hulls were built - there is a lot of glass in them in exactly the right spots.
Carl Moesly "proof tested" his construction techniques by racing SeaCraft's in the brutal Offshore Power Boat series in the '60's, where they totally dominated the outboard division! It's all documented in Carla's new web site:
http://www.moeslyseacraft.com/seacraft-stockboats.html and in this thread that Big Shrimpin posted last month of the 1967 Bahamas 500:
http://www.classicseacraft.com/commu...ad.php?t=23715 That race was so rough that 75% of the boats entered dropped out, but all 3 SeaCrafts finished the entire race!
Denny