'73 20' CC Liner Removal

[esoxesox]

I stood there waffling on cutting into the old girl last night and decided I'd better ask this question to the "been there, done that" crew. Up here on the Great Lakes we run quite a few lines in search of salmon. I am basically set up to run 12 lines but need to clean up the spread. I have two riggers mounted on the aft corners. They were easy. I would like to mount one more downrigger and three rod holders on the gunwales on each side. The rod holders (ratcheting style that mount on a track and lay parallel to the water when the rods are in use) will go just aft of the CC. The riggers are just behind the existing in-deck rod holders but they aren't as solid as I'd like them to be. I can BARELY reach the downrigger mount to put a backing plate on and can't even get close to below where the rod holders will go. I really don't like the idea of access hatches all down the side of the liner. I'd thought about cutting out the liner from the forward rod rack back to the aft seat to achieve the look of a Master Angler but don't want to compromise the hull integrity. I imagine I'll need to reinforce the deck and put a few support areas from the deck to the floor/stringer. Can anybody give me any thoughts on this problem?


Thanks,

Scot