Deck to stringers conection

[bigeasy1]

Harry,it's nice to see another person close by doing a Seacraft.I'm 25 minutes on the other side of Sturbridge.

The stringers on my 23(it's an I/O)had a little wet foam on the port side.Most of the moisture seemed to be only about an inch or so on the bottom,so I didn't open them up.
Now that the restoration is done,and the boat is in use,I'm wishing that I "DID! open them up and refoam them.I can't help but wonder every time I use it,If I should have done that.
I always wonder if one of the reasons I can't seem to get the high end speed i'd like out of mine is because of the extra weight of saturated foam.

If you have the whole deck out,you might as well go ahead and do the extra work.
Better to do all the nasty dirty miserable work now,rather than question yourself forever after.
I think you'd find that more of the foam is saturated,once you open them up.
At least you'll have piece of mind,and know that it was done right.

The putty you mentioned was also generously used in mine.They had it caked in big globs in several areas,and I used a hammer and chisel to remove lots of it.
Wear eye protection,because it will shatter all over the place.
If I had to do it all over again,I'd bite the bullet and cut the stringers open,and remove any saturated foam,and replace it.
Then you can be worry free for a very very very very long time.

[Cheg]

Just went through the same process. Moisture only in the bottom inch or less. Went back and forth about removal. Then one day while sitting there staring at it, I just grabbed a 2" hole saw opened up some square holes about 8" x 8" in the top and dug it out. Most was small enough to shop vac out. Took about 5 hours but it's done and I,m glad I did it. Mine's a 23' but still don't think you would have to cut the entire top off on yours. Made it easy to recover with fiberglass after it was refoamed. I'm less than 10 mins up the road if you want to take a look.

[lunasea17]

Don I'd like to take you up on your offer to see your boat. I spent more time monkeying around in mine today. So far the foam in mine seems pretty dry except for where the stringer is cut to allow the fuel lines to pass through. In fact, the foam is the only thing that is dry. I don't know what held this boat together. The hammer and chisel works great on the resin putty, snaps right off.