stringer problem

[Hayden]

The deck seems to be in good shape. No soft spots that I can find. Thanks for your feedback.

[dsharp]

Hayden, I have a 23' Seacraft so I am not familiar with your particular boat but you may want to look at the stringers a little closer before you start cutting the deck out. You need to try to determine if the hull is actually working enough to crack the glass or if it's just the gelcoat cracking. Its not too unusual for the chines to be beat up from grounding, careless loading on the trailer, etc. If the stringers are actually moving you will often see cracks along the lifting strakes on the bottom. Do you know if the local shops are familiar with the seacrafts. The reason I'm asking is alot of bass boats and cheaper boats used stringers that were nothing more than 3/4 " plywood on edge with a layer of 1.5 oz mat over it.

I used to own one of those cheaper boats that was also a bass boat I was using it to fish our bay's down here in galveston anyway's the boat was slightly overpowered and after launching it off of a tug wake the landing split the hull in 5 places on both of the chines immediatly started to leak bad had to beach it and pump it out several times to get to the boat ramp. The moral of the story is if the hull integrity has been effected from my experience you would know it. I've seen gel coat cracks on some real good boats that only effected boats looks not stucture.

[Hayden]

Wow! That type of experience is what I want to avoid. I've been pushing my luck so far and I know something like that is possible if I don't get it fixed. I've been putting 5200 on the cracks for three years which minimizes the water that gets in (and out).

[Hayden]

Yes, it would be a shame to cut out the deck unnecessarily. However, I may have understated the "cracks". They are in the glass. As a matter of fact, water will seep from the cracks for days after use. I've been pushing my luck knowing what a job it would be to undertake, but it's time to face the music and take a look inside at what's going on. The shops I've consulted are very surprised, because they say they've never seen this occur with a Seacraft. One of the more experienced guys I talked to thinks the boat could have dropped during one of it's previous lives. We will see. The tank came out relatively easily this weekend. So, the deck is next.