Enduracraft-Dorsett stringer problem

[tjpare53]

So what turned into a minor glass repair on the transom turned into transom repair, then splash well removal and transom complete removal, which turned into some odd floor movement, which now has me very concerned about the stringers!!!

Welcome to classic boat restoration...!!

The more I dig the deeper I go...

OK, here's my question...What is a 1957-58 Enduracraft/Dorsett subfloor supposed to look like anyway? I'm pretty sure the stringers are supposed to be attached to the hull but these are NOT!! I can lift the ends of the stringers away from the hull by hand so they are just flapping around, but they don't move left/right so they are anchored farther forward.

Now I plan on removing the whole floor (4x7 sheet of plywood) but was wondering if any of you have seen this before?? Is this a shoddy previous repair job or is this "factory"??

[Helmar]

So, those are say, 1 x 4 or x6's and they are just laying flat?

I am no master but have been into a fair amount of down to the guts repair and never have I seen something just laying loose like that.

The idea was to keep the floor Rigid, no movement.

Anyone here have any images or process showing replacing the stringers??

I have a Dorsett Catalina that is going to need stringers but am going to make up my patterns, then makeup Fiberglass stringers that I can glass down to the hull.
It just blows me away finding they used stop sign plywood in the Dorsetts.
Skagits are all glass.

Ok, the boat you have is the only one that I myself has ever seen.
I would call it special.

More on this later. I might be able to help you with the stringers..

[TheBronze]

Wierd. Seems to me that it doesn't matter if they were factory or a bad repair job. This is your opportunity to install a new set the right way. Glass them in nice and sturdy and you'll KNOW that it was done right.

[Helmar]

Making stringer patterns

Well, I don't have any pictures...........Its hard to Draw pictures with text typing......
I have done this with a laser.
I set the spinning laser in the bottom of the boat (after it was cleaned out).
I used a hot glue gun to hold it in place.
What I did was point it at the cabin bulkhead, port, starboard, then spin it around and pointing it at the stearns port and starboard locations were the floor would meet the hull sides.
This took some monkeying around with to get set up right.

If this laser (which I might ad was a cheap one from the hardware store)
was to spin like a top, it would create a Red line or Laser line floor.

Man this is hard to explain.....
I had to have it point at all 4 corners and no matter how many times I turned it, it would always land in the same place marking were the Old floor used to be.

I then got out my 1/8" Door Skin 4x8 sheet.
I measured the deepest location on the floor to hull which was only 7 inches.
I cut some 4" strips, grabbed my hot glue and box of pop cycle sticks and went at it.
I clamped the door skin to the old rotten stringer so it was right at the laser line, then I started hot gluing the pop cycle sticks to the door skin with the one end down touching the hull.
I only put one just about a foot apart until the hull started to rise faster.

I had that stringer pattern.
The next step was to figure out what I was making the new stringer out of.
The hull started to rise on one side of the stringer so I just took a drop measurement down to the hull from the laser line at each pop cycle stick location. It was rising port to starboard.
This allowed me to know how much wood to trim and at what angle.
No draw knife for me, I use a power hand plainer

Once I had it back in the boat and fitting, I marked it and dropped it down 5/8's of a inch from the laser mark. Then I took a sheet of 1/2" MDO plywood and cut 1, 1/2" strips to put on the tops of the stringers to make it a "T" top for the fasteners to screw into.

Off to the next one and next one. Once I had them all created, I pulled them up one at a time, took the grinder and took the sheen and exposed fresh fiberglass were the stringers were going to glass down on to the hull.

Then, glassed the crap out of everything using the heavy glass cloth that I had.
Oh yeah, the "T" down the center of the boat (keel) I made a little wider. Can't remember how much right now, but it was were the two pieces of plywood would come together and make seam.
I also covered the whole floor with glass cloth. I wanted it sealed !!

On the Dorsett, I will contact Marty Loken and see if he has any of that heavy roving fiberglass rolls that he scored. Its the same stuff the heavy stringers in the Skagit is made out of.
My plan is to design a stinger that is made out of glass, but stronger than what is in it now, plus not add any more weight to the boat.

[tjpare53]

Removed most of the flooring last night and now I feel that this may be factory built this way.

The center keel rib is "original" but still seems sound enough to just clean up and re-glass over. I just need to come up with a plan to support the sides of the floor.

The side stringers are 3-1/2" wide but tapered in thickness 1/2" on the outboard side and 3/4" on the inboard along the whole length to match the hull angle to the flat floor. They had very old chopped strand cemented to the bottom that had long since deteriorated and pulled away from the hull skin.

My debate now is what to replace them with? If I go a thinner stringer, say 2" then should I add another set? Obviously the space between the hull and the floor is very thin in this boat out towards the sides.

I could try to reproduce the original design but seal the new boards with resin/cloth and then really mount them to the hull with paenut butter and CSM.

[Helmar]

Stringer Replacement or Repair

Wow, seen a few, but never seen one like that.
I have seen a fair amount of different designs. Some from, what were they thinking to the Skagits over kill stringers.
I've seen the Bell Boy 18's and 20's had half round stringers, about like a tennis ball cut in half.
I have seen the Dorsetts with MDO Plywood stringers, Not coated with anything on the edges.

I have a little 16-17ft Bell Boy with wooden stringers and pretty flat floor, flat bottom. Not much rise from the keel to the chine edge either.

I have too many boats to do and will never get the chance to finish or do them. I have the know how but not the body to pull it off any longer. Just can't see them going to the chopper. I will look for a sad picture or two of it and the floor.

We have a couple of others fellows that have been into stuff like this that seem to be pretty quite lately.
Marty, Tim M ??