New Project: 170 Aquasport

[MarcG]

Guess what comes next.

[RickK]

Before you cut, what is the plan?  2" all the way around and then set the new floor on top?  Keeping the trough?  If so, you'll need to build the edge of that up too.

[MarcG]

Yes, new floor is going on top. I laid out some contractor paper on top first and made a template of the whole floor, including where the fuel tank coffin is located. Figured that was the easiest way to trim the new floor to shape before dropping it in. Leaving a 2" lip and I'll build up the stringers.  No trough for the cables; I'll add tubing underneath to run everything.

Which brings me to questions:

Core material (floor and transom). Was thinking plywood but for the cost may go with Coosa or CoreLite. Anyone have experience with these or have other suggestions?

Thickness.  Thinking 1 1/2 for the transom, 5/8 for the floor.

Chase under the floor. 3in. or 4in. PVC?  I'll use the sweep bends instead of the 90 deg. bends. Separate chase for fuel line?  Assume this could be 2in. 

I'll add more pics once everything is cleaned out. I'm expecting to replace the flotation foam but fingers crossed the stringers are in good shape.

[RickK]

You never mentioned the transom and what your plan is on it - raise it to full? or leave it as a 20" notched?  Where will you bring up the rigging tubes and how will you keep them water tight?  These are the same questions I went through as I did my rebuild and I decided to make custom cabinets in the corners to bring the tubes up into the boat. Wood or composite is fine for the transom and floor - your choice.

[MarcG]

I remember the cabinets you added, great idea.  I was thinking of following your process and adding something similar to the Edgewater 17.  I'm attaching a picture. I'll leave the transom at 20" and the new notch will follow the lines for the boxes. I like the idea of the boat shedding a lot of water fast if I get swamped. I'm thinking running the rigging pipes up the starboard side and using something similar to what the Edgewater has to keep the water out. Port side will be a livewell. I'd like to connect the two boxes about a foot forward of the transom to make a splashwell, and add drains in the corners feeding back to it. 

[RickK]

Sounds like a plan.

[MarcG]

Took the whole day but making some progress.





Removed 60 pounds of wet foam. Thank you to whoever provided the tip of using an air chisel on the bedding compound, big time saver!  Now on to the transom...

[larsli68]

Great work!

Looks very similar to what I did 2 years ago. What are your plans for the transom?
I used Seacast. I have been very happy with it. No cracks or failures after two seasons.

Keep up the good work!

//Lars

[RickK]

Yup, brings back memories. After you clean up the inside you'll get a chance to look at the stringers and decide if you need to take it any deeper.

[MarcG]

I considered the Seacast, but I would have had a problem on this boat.  If you look at this shot of the transom, the bottom six inches of the inside fiberglass was VERY thin.  The black at the top is the wood and there is one, maybe two layers of glass.  It would have been impossible to scrape that out without putting holes in it.  Besides, I'm thinking of adding boxes in the back so at that point it's not much work to just rebuild the inner skin. 



I cut out the back corners to re-use them, and scored up the inner liner and plywood to make it easy to chisel out.  The ply against the outer skin was completely rotted out.  The first piece you see removed actually just fell off without any prying.





I figure I'm about two-thirds done, plenty left for tomorrow!

[MarcG]

Transom is clean after a lot more grinding and scraping. Thank goodness for the oscillating multi tool. Did a great job on the last layer of wood using the chisel blade.



I counted about 70 holes the transom collected over 40 years so the plywood never had a chance. Repairs ranged from epoxy to wood plugs to caulking.



One crack in the port stringer. It didn't look too bad at first until I started grinding it back and found the two foot crack was closer to six feet. Luckily it didn't run up under the casting platform so it should be an easy fix. I didn't find the stringer was bedded down, rather just tabbed to the hull with a gap. I'll fill the gap with thickened epoxy then tab over it.

i

[RickK]

Great progress!  The stringers look to be in great shape.

[larsli68]

Great progress! 

You are luckier than I was. My stringers were waterlogged.

//Lars

[MarcG]

Took a short break from the boat to work on another project, refinishing the stairs in the house.  Now back to the boat!  I loaded up on supplies just after New Years, plenty of resin, fiberglass and foam.  Picked up a few sheets of CoreLite from a distributor in Miami as well.  Recycled the brace I used to flip over the boat and now it a rack for all the material. 



Dug out the foam over the spot on the port stringer where the tabbing to the hull cracked.  Re-tabbed the stringer (the crack was actually almost six feet) and refilled the foam.  Rock solid now. 



Before I had cut out the floor I had made a template out of contractor paper...



Made it easy to layout the pattern on the the 1/2 inch CoreLite.



Fit perfectly into place.  Feels good to be rebuilding finally!!

[RickK]

Welcome back!! Progress is a good thing