Boston Whalers boats

[Marcq]

Do they have stringers ?

Marc..

[seabob4]

Marc,
All boats, regardless of "un-sinkability" or not, need some sort of longitudal stiffness to keep the hull from flexing in ways one would not desire.  Whether those stringers are accessable in a Whaler is another question.  

Simply filling a bare hull with foam is not going to provide that hull integrity.  They also need bulkheads between those stringers to provide torsional stiffness...

[Marcq]

Marc,
Simply filling a bare hull with foam is not going to provide that hull integrity.  They also need bulkheads between those stringers to provide torsional stiffness...

Never heard of a whaler with bad stringers or even seen one on the net, actually I never seen a rebuilt of a whaler    

Marc..

[Capt. Bob]

Here's a start.



73 Outrage with floor removed. Fuel tank resided in center section.

Linky
http://www.whalercentral.com/print.php? ... 59094&nr=3

[RickK]

Well I certainly learned a thing or two looking at the rebuild of that whaler: 1) those babies are virtually made of foam - have no clue how they get all that foam into it.  Must bond the liner and hull and then tilt the boat and shoot it in - definitely a proprietary operation. 2) after reading the rebuilders commentary it seems that maybe they don't have stringers - the square spots in his images are some kind of reinforcement. Interesting.

[Marcq]

Interesting indeed, the process seemed to be a well kept secret

Here's a quote from Continuous Wave faq
"Q3: Is There Water In My Hull?

Revised July 2, 2002

Worries about entrapped water in the interior of a Boston Whaler hull are common. The construction of a Whaler is based on the UniBond technique where two relatively thin uncured laminated shells are bonded together and filled with a liquid which quickly expands into foam. The boat is left in the tightly clamped molds to cure into a single structure in which the foam is continuously bonded to the laminate shells, producing a very strong and lightweight boat. To preserve the integrity of this structure it is important that the foam remain intact and bonded to the laminate."

So I was wondering if the same technique can be use on other type of boats?
Marc..

[seabob4]

Indeed an interesting build process.  The "squares", as Rick pointed out, would appear to me to reduce the size of unsupported panels, the area between bulkheads and/or stringers.

I'm sure other builders would be able to mimic this process, although the molds would have to be modified to ensure they could be clamped together, and the amount of foam pumped in would have to be carefully regulated and pre-determined through numerous tests,  as we all know that when foam is expanding, it needs somewhere to go, and if the space it is occupying is filled before the expansion process is complete, something is gotta give...

I've been a member over on Continuous Wave for several years now, one of the biggest problems with older Whalers is water intrusion and absorption into the foam, creating undesirable weight gain without any way to get rid of it.  That, the problem of lack of in-sole storage (due to all that foam), and the price says to me that I'll take an AS ANYDAY!

[Tripower455]

Indeed an interesting build process.  The "squares", as Rick pointed out, would appear to me to reduce the size of unsupported panels, the area between bulkheads and/or stringers.

I'm sure other builders would be able to mimic this process, although the molds would have to be modified to ensure they could be clamped together, and the amount of foam pumped in would have to be carefully regulated and pre-determined through numerous tests,  as we all know that when foam is expanding, it needs somewhere to go, and if the space it is occupying is filled before the expansion process is complete, something is gotta give...

I've been a member over on Continuous Wave for several years now, one of the biggest problems with older Whalers is water intrusion and absorption into the foam, creating undesirable weight gain without any way to get rid of it.  That, the problem of lack of in-sole storage (due to all that foam), and the price says to me that I'll take an AS ANYDAY!

I've owned 2 Whalers over the years. I had a '77 13 that hung on davits or sat on a trailer. I never had any water intrusion in the 10 years or so I had it. My friend has been using it as a tender for his Chris Craft for the last 15 years or so.

The other one was a '72 16.6 "Sakonnet" with about 400 square feet of mahogany in it. Classic boat! It had a huge tear in the keel, and lots of water intrusion, which delaminated the hull from the foam along the keel. I paid $500 for it in 90. I ended up relaying the entire keel. I cut all of the delaminated glass off, and relayed the keel after letting it sit in a heated garage for an entire winter, dripping water the entire time! I also used 3.5 gallons of paint stripper on the mahogany!

I put an '88 88 SPL on it. It flew and was a fun boat, but too small to be practical for my use. It really wasn't much better than the 13 overall. Not enough storage.

I got my Aquasport a year later, and sold the Sakonnet, at a pretty good profit soon after. The whaler is a great boat, but I agree, for the $$$$ there are just as good/better alternatives.

[gran398]

As stated, Whaler's are great boats, until they are wet internally.

Then they become poor boats. Much too heavy for their length, and what was ease of use now becomes difficulty of use.

A good friend here in town is a respected glass/paint guy, and does it all on brand names. In his shop two years back was a NEW 24 Whaler, stringers delaminated from the hull.  As he was a certified Whaler warranty venue, Whaler sent him their cure....a 48 inch aluminum bracket, with overlaps to fit on each side of each stringer. Two vertical aluminum plates on each end of the cross-piece...to go over either side of each stringer, 4 plates total.

Installed eighteen inches forward of the transom, to keep the rear-end from rocking.

A quick fix....screwed all into quarter inch glass stringers, bedding down on.....foam.

Saw the fix...he did a great job.....per instruction.

[seabob4]

Scott,

It's amazing what the factory will come up with as a fix, isn't it...

[Capt. Bob]

Go over what stringers?

You mean the newer Whalers have conventional stringers rather than the old school method of construction outlined above?

[gran398]

Yep, it did. One longitudinal per side.