wet stringers??

[flyingfrizzle]

The water weight will add up big time and make the hull sit a few inches lower. Almost like having a fat chick on the boat with you at all times. lol JK
Most box stringers I see are just soaked the lower 1/3 and have filled up slowly over time. The rubber tubes in the rear are not sealed well around them and instead of draining water from the outer voids under the deck into the bilge they drain into the inside of the stringer. Most of the time I pull then out and glass over the holes. Also when they originally filled the foam in they don't reseal up the fill holes on the tops of the stringer forms. Water can get in there that way as well. Hopefully those got sealed up when they did the deck.
I wouldn't let it bother me too much as some simple drain holes at the bases will drain it out and give you some more life with out tearing the foam out if it is wet. The freezing would be the big worry if you are up north. We don't have that here so much but know it can be an issue.

[FLexpat]

this thread has got me wondering if it makes any sense to a put small (3-4") screw in waterproof deck plate on the side of each stringer by the bilge - low down for inspection/draining when on the trailer - stupid or not? I don't know how much load the stringer walls get and haven't really thought about this before...

[flyingfrizzle]

Originally Posted by FLexpat

this thread has got me wondering if it makes any sense to a put small (3-4") screw in waterproof deck plate on the side of each stringer by the bilge - low down for inspection/draining when on the trailer - stupid or not? I don't know how much load the stringer walls get and haven't really thought about this before...

I wouldn't take to big of a inspection hole to know the condition of them. You could glass in a thick enough spot on the rear boxes to drill and tap for an 1/2" plug that can be removed to drain off any water. Place it far back as possible and low as possible then you can raise the nose of the boat/trailer up high pull the plugs and allow it to drain if needed. The hull I am working on now has water in the stringers and when I cut them back to fit the new transom I jacked the nose up to drain them. Once I was ready to glass the core in I let it back down in the front to stop the drainage so I could glass the transom in with out water running down to the bottom of the hull on the core. It would take time for it all to drain out but some drain plugs would allow a way out if it needed draining.