1978 20ft Seacraft rebuild new Stringers & floor

[Happi1fla]

Hi, New to Classic Seacraft 1st visit, Great Information, and input from all owners /members Have owned this one since 1990 , Had very few problems with this boat run the rivers, lakes and ocean for many years repowered with a new transom and Outboard earlier this year . Now the time has come to replace my stringers and floor , with a inspection/access hole cut found stringers to be Rotten , this was expected for a nearly thirty year old boat. Would like to know if there are drawings or pic's of this stringer system , the long rectangular gas tank sits inside a fiberglass shell
The length of the boat with no structure underneath, The stringers are on the side of tank but not certain of how many layers or how deep .

Please help I was Nauseous and sick after cutting into the deck with my Circular saw. Have many pic's would like to send a couple.


Thank you'

John

[reelclassic]

Would like to see the pics..I will be starting my project soon.

[Bryan A.]

Welcome to the site. Does this pic help? If you browse through the 20 foot models page you can really learn alot about the construction of the boat. Post pics, we like em. Also your stringers should be foam filled. Try the search function too, much has been covered on this topic. Happy searching.

[Bigshrimpin]

Hopefully this will cheer you up a little.

That style stringer setup above were the old style (pre - 1972??) and were just hollow shells by design. Feel free to look at the patent if you don't beleive me. They are built that way and one of the best and strongest features of the seacraft. Oceanmaster and many other boat builders still use this stringer design today.

The 1972 and later stringers are 2 bigger box stringers filled with foam. Stringers don't ROT in any seacraft (except the very very old early early 1960's boats) when they used wood.

Here's the post 1972 stringer style.


The Center stringer in the older boats was wood and laster was replaced using PVC?? or some other type of half round tube.

[countshock]

The center tube on my 1978 20' apears to be PVC

[GradySailfish]

Which model do you have ? The Super/Sportfish or the Master Angler ?

My 78' has those box stringers spoken about earlier. I like them, but you might want to check the foam inside those stringers as it can be waterlogged. The stringers themselves are heavy glass, so they won't rot, but the foam inside can get waterlogged. Funning thing was one side of my boat had waterlogged stringers while the other side's foam was in perfect condition.

[Bryan A.]

Hopefully this will cheer you up a little.

The magic of ClassicSeacraft.com

Nice catch Big.