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Permalink Reply by Troy Nicolls on July 27, 2011 at 12:19pm

I am not an expert as many on this forum by any means, but I will give you my opinion. I took on my first boat project last year which was a 14' double ender in similar condition (see my pics for reference). The bottom was 1/4' ply and rotten in places. The sides were also 1/4" and rotten in places. My frames were "OK", but soft here and there. My chine log was 1/2 rotten for about 3 feet along one side. My boat was painted inside and out. My choice was to replace the bottom with 1/2 marineply and fiberglass, scarf repair the chine log and scarf repair a 6" x 3' patch on one side where the chine log had to be repaired. I had to sand the entire boat inside and out but could not remove all the latex paint on the inside so I just repainted the inside. I simply epoxied and painted the outside sides. All in all, Im quite certain I could have built a nicer boat in less time from scratch and in fact I did just that soon after finishing. However, there is something to be said about restoration. You will have an old boat with a history which YOU have resurrected and brought back into service...a worthwhile venture. As far as what you should do? In hindsight I wish I would have fiberglassed the sides of my boat because the old softening fir ply has checked through the epoxy and paint and actually leaked the last time I floated it. Considering all the work it took to do my project, I'm not sure I wouldn't just repair the rotten frames, tighten everything up with epoxy, fiberglass the entire bottom and sides, add new chine caps and a 1/4" plywood shoe on the bottom. This will make the boat fishable,however I would not expect it to last forever. My 2 pennies.

 

It's all fun...just time consuming.

Troy

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Permalink Reply by will cordova on July 27, 2011 at 5:38pm

thanks for the enlightenment...I think I'm going to enjoy this project, as ugly as she is

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Permalink Reply by will cordova on July 29, 2011 at 6:51pm

lots of rot...when I cut out the rotten wood, how do I replace it?...what kind of filler do I use?...does any of the wood need prepped?...I want to glass it well on the outside, oil the new inside...whilst removing the old gunwale the screws either stuck (I cut them off with a hack saw) or they floated out...there doesn't seem much to salvage...I can easily poke holes through the hull along the chine...help

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Permalink Reply by Randy Dersham on July 29, 2011 at 10:43pm

Click here to go the a post on the same issue

 

In the post at the above link there is a discussion about the same issue of replacing the side pannel at the chine by cutting a step scarf in the panel while it is on the boat. 

 

You should plan to replace any rotten wood using this method.

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Permalink Reply by Kevin C. on July 30, 2011 at 7:57am

perhaps you can cut out the affected area of rot with a skil saw all the way aong the chine,maybe3-4" down from the bottom and then lap joint a long skinny piece back in, the length of the boat,by routering out half of the plys on the repair piece as well as 1/2 the ply of the hull side?Epoxy in with thickened and clamps.I have treated rotten wood(frames) with a good soaking of epoxy thinned with den. alcohol and a heating of the remaining wood.a syringe works well to really get it to penetrate the interior grains.Let that set for awhile before adding some unthinned epoxy and eventually thickened epoxy to fill the void.If it's a big enough void custom carve a fir piece to epoxy in instead of using so much thickened

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Permalink Reply by Stan Riedesel on August 14, 2011 at 9:19am

Will, this last winter I restored a Barker drift boat that had rot problems very similar to what you describe.  I braced the rails with a crossmember and then removed 6' of rotted chine logs and boat bottom.  There was also rot in the plywood sides, so 3-4" of them had to be removed with a circular saw.  The short section of chines were too difficult to bend, so I split the new chines in half on the band saw and then put the pieces in, on an top of the other and sistered them to the reminaing sound chine wood.  With lots of clamps, the new chine piece took the right shape.  Then I slipped the new 3-4" plywood side  pieces between the new chines and the sound old  side wood.  With lots more glue and clamping, and screws this also took the right shape.  This work was done with the hull turned up-side-down and on sawhorses to give me good working access.  When the chines were in, I laid in some bottom framing and then put a on a new plywood bottom.  I did fiberglass the bottom and came 6" up the sides.  Your repair to the stem can be done in the same manner.

After the drift boat, I also restored a Barker Rapid Robert, which had almost no rot.

Don't give up on that Robert, Will. 

 

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