Floor and Stern replacement

[jaybyrd83ecu]

I had noticed a soft spot in the floor of my 23' Chawk and had been putting off any major repair. However, I decided to bite the bullet and cut it out to see how severe the issue was. Turns out, The entire floor was not in the best of shape. The builder had used household plywood and not marine grade and it was deteriorating everywhere. The previous owner had not sealed any mounting screws on the console to the floor or for captains chairs when they were in the boat. Thus I had a rotten floor in some areas. I have some friends that work at Blackwell who agreed to help me so I brought the boat down to Wanchese. I did not take many pictures in the beginning, but from here on out, I intend to take step by step pictures of the floor and transom replacement process. I am toying with the idea of building up a full transom and putting a bracket on the back, but I need to find a deal on a bracket first. . (anyone know someone getting rid of a bracket cheap?)

The boat before starting:



I intend to leave out the rear boxes and splashwell and open up the backend. I am also planning to put in a smaller console.
After 20 hours of cutting out the deck and stringers with a sawsaw, This is what I'm dealing with:





Topdeck off:


I still have a few hours left of grinding before I can lay out where the new stringers will fall in. Hopefully, I will have some cooler weather this week to do it in.

The flare of a Carolina boat:


More to follow. . . .

[jaybyrd83ecu]

Had a good day for grinding (if there is such a thing) with it being overcast and got everything down on the floors and along the edges. I still will have to knock out the old plywood under the ledges all the way around but still got quite a bit accomplished:
Took 6 inches up each side for the new cloth to adhere properly.



You can see the lines I put up where the new stringers will go in. This helped when grinding the floor to know how far to go on each side and not go overboard trying to get every bit of the floor smooth.



All the material that was ground out:


Got a little carried away in one area that I will have to build up and lay some glass on before laying stringers:


The work area. A neighbor was nice enough to loan me the portable carport. Helped out a bunch today with all the off and on showers.


After everything was about ground out, laid out cross strings to see the height of the new floor and measure how high to cut the stringers:


Cross the strings in a few places to make sure they touch (showing the hull is not warped and the new floor will be level:


Will start building on the stern tomorrow.

[evilgli]

very nice work, you got more patience than me.. when do you want to do a floor in a wellcraft V21? this is my smaller boat and has a soft floor??? its worth a shot to ask..

[blueh20pc]

Jesus Christ James,

Nice work, but good Lord.

Gimme a call if you wanna go fishing this summer. I can be persuaded to go help you do some glasswork this summer if needed. Didn't know you had ripped up down to that level.

Anyways, gimme a call, you got a lot of work ahead of you. BTW, I'm on vacation till July 25th!

Chris 252-207-5912

[blueh20pc]

Nevermind, I know where you are in 1chse from the pics, I'll just drop by.

[southern fried]

Rite On !!! Should be nice when done.

[keith]

how would like to do that everyday for a living geeez

[jaybyrd83ecu]

Busy, busy, busy day.
So busy that I forgot my camera. I took a few with my cellphone but have to figure how to get them here. . .

Started the morning by getting the Transom cut and glued. Easier said than done. Built a jig with strips we cut out of luan. Then traced it onto 1/2" plywood and cut it out. Set it in the transom and trimmed 'til it set right. Then laid that onto 1" hydrocore and cut it. After ensuring a snug fit, we glued the two sheets of plywood together and screwed them together and left them to cure.

Couldn't do anything else for the day with the stern so decided to start on stringers. Well, that turned into actually getting them done all the way! Used luan strips again to make patterns then traced them onto 1/2" plywood and cut them out. Did this for the starboard, center, and port stringers, all the way back. Repeated the same process for the stern as far as fitting them and then cutting and attaching 1" hydrocore to them and refitting again.
Tomorrow I plan to glue and start glassing stringers in. Also plan to set the stern and get that glassed in. After I help a friend pull nets at 5am. Then gotta drive to Richmond to get the bracket I found.


I'll edit this post and throw in the pix from my cellphone if I ever figure out how to transfer them. Most likely won't be tonite after the day I've had.

Chris, I tried calling you. I'm at my friend Jeff's house back btw Jovers and Just Right Marine.

[Prodigal Son]

Where in Richmond is the bracket and how much? Josh (Ocean's Brew) is up there today and will likely be down here (Nags Head) tomorrow...so as long as you aren't buying something that's $4000 he could probably front the money and bring it to you for a beer...or two.

[jaybyrd83ecu]

Thanks for the offer Ryan. I got it picked up yesterday. Couldn't figure out how to email pictures to myself from my cellphone so I'll just show what I've got done since the last posting.

Here is the stern all glued together:

Making sure the stringers laid properly:

The luan strips used to make the patterns:


Setting the stern wasn't too bad. Started by taping all existing holes so that glue wouldn't squeeze all out and then set screws all over the stern to pull the plywood to the hull:

Then we set the stern in the back of the boat and painted the entire hull with a mix of epoxy and filler:

Then we screwed the wood to the hull and pulled it all tight. We filled all small gaps with the remaining glue:



Then I took off to Richmond to get my bracket.
Today I got the stringers glued together. Spread the glue between the two and then screw them together until it squeezes out all over:


All the stringers glued:

The new stern bracket:


Tomorrow I plan to get the stringers set in the boat and maybe even start glassing them in. I also have to work on the console at some point. . . Along with a few other things.
More to follow.