wet stringers??

[jwclbi]

Hello, so here's what has gone on to try to put it short. I've noticed in the past 2-3 years my boat has gotten slower, engine is older now so i know its tired. But as well the water line on the back of the boat has risen above where it previously was a few years back, about 3/4" maybe more. Also now even when about half a tank of fuel (25 gal.+/-) with three people on board the water will come up through the aft deck drains, that never happened before. Im wondering if the foam in the stringers has become saturated with water. The boat has a composite deck and transom so no water is there. Oh its a 1973 20 SF. Any thoughts?

[caper]

Drill some test holes and find out.

[jwclbi]

assuming I find water what is the remedy? I almost don't want to know…..

[jwclbi]

anyone have experience with wet stringers if that is the case? Really don't want to pull deck out again

[flyingfrizzle]

If yours is a 73 it should have the quad stringers instead of the two big box stringers. It may have the bigger ones as they changed sometime around 73. I know all 74s have them but seen it both ways in 73. But anyway if you don't want to tear it apart and you do have water in there the best way to get it out is drill small 1/4" weep holes at the lowest point of the base of each stringer. This will allow the water to slowly drain out. Only bad thing is if you get water in the bilge high enough it can soak back in. If you can get it all drained out and then seal the drain holes back up you would be ok but it may take a few months for all of it to drain out. This works much better in the summer months. I have found that a lot of the stringers will have water in them only in the bottom base area and the top of the foam dry. There will be a rubber drain pipe at the back of the stringers. It seems like the top above the hose exit can drain out of it and everything lower than the hole where the hose exits will collect and hold the water in as it cant escape.

Also I have heard of people injecting rubbing alcohol in the stringer cases and they say it will help adsorb the water then evaporate out faster.

[Old'sCool]

There should not be any wood to rot if that's the concern. Foam maybe

[jwclbi]

Thanks guys. Yes Frizzle mine has the two large foam filled stringers, thats my concern with the water. Also, really how water could really be in there? Can't be a couple hundred pounds worth, could it??

[erebus]

Originally Posted by jwclbi

Can't be a couple hundred pounds worth, could it??

Well, water weighs about 8.3 pounds per gallon, and there are 7.5 gallons in a cubic foot. So a solid cubic foot of water would weigh 62.25 pounds.

So if the stringers are 100% soaked halfway up, say 6 inches, for the back half of the boat (call it 10 feet) and they're one foot wide (don't actually know how wide they are), that would be 311.25 pounds of water per stringer.

The odds that they are solid 100% water 6 inches up is pretty slim, so call it 3 inches up (which is still a stretch) that would be about 155 pounds of water per stringer in the back of the boat.

Those examples don't really account for the area of the foam itself, the angle of the hull (which would change the internal volume of the stringer) or the actual water saturation in your case.
Just giving you some broad strokes.
You can change the numbers around to match your actual stringer sizes and estimation of water saturation.

[FLexpat]

Stringers might be wet and might not but a a small hole on each one will tell you. The obvious issue for wet stringers is the weight but you can probably either dry them a bit or learn to live with/accommodate it as it isn't a big time structural issue (other than possible some delam over many years). But if they really are wet now and were not several years ago when you rebuilt it, I would seriously wonder how they got that way after you did the deck in the rebuild.

[doug7488]

I would be concerned with the water freezing in the winter