Thanks for the responses so far!

I have cut the stringers out in the main cabin. I really can't see how they
provided any strength. On one main stringer (they are 16" high) the glass
cloth was buldging out a good 1 1/2" on each side! As I mentioned before,
another one is a good 1/2" off the hull. On top of that there was a gap of
about 1/8" between cloth and wood at the top, along the whole length of each
one. It looks like the wood actually shrunk! Is that possible? I took a
piece of the stringer wood into a wood shop and they weren't specific other
than it is pine of some kind (very clear and light). I believe these boats
were made in Florida.

I'm not sure of the weight of cloth on the stringer, it's more like a
roving, but there are two rather thin layers.

I'm beginning to think these stringer are there to support the floor, and
that's it.


"anxious boater" wrote in message
.. .
I have a 1969 fiberglass (polyester) hulled houseboat. It's a Thunderbird
Drift-R-Cruise. All the engine stringers and three interior stringers are
shot. Everything I have read so far basicly says to epoxy the stringers
in,
fillet and glass over. I am certain the first two steps were omitted,
either
when this boat was built or this job was done in the past. Some of the
inside stringers aren't even resting on the hull interior surface. From
what
I can see, water leaked in at the bow (and other places) and simply
migrated
to the back of the boat. The rot is really bad starting in the bildge (the
stringers oozed out when I started cutting!) and improves some moving up
closer to the bow. Is this poor boat building, or just the way it was done
back then?

Now I'm not so sure that I should put the new stringers in using the
current
methods. For example, will the vibration from the motors cause cracking in
the hull glass if they are epoxied in, solid as a rock?

Thanks,
Steve