Your original post led me to believe you might not know very much about this
kind of boat as you appeared to be unfamiliar with how thru prop exhaust is
accomplished. It's been done the same way on just about all of them for
about 20 years up to now. I'm not an expert on fiberglass/wood construction
but I do know more about it than you. It is pretty much a certainty that
this boat contains encapsulated wood stringers, transom, and floor. When
your surveyor looks at it I suggest you ask him about the topic.

And I believe I was the only person to answer your question about switchable
exhaust. Here's what it looks like.
http://home.earthlink.net/~jamesgangnc/corsa.jpg If you look towards the
left side of the picture you will see that the cutout coming off the riser
connects both to the Y pipe behind the exhaust manifold and also goes back
to the transom. If you look very closely you can see the lever and solenoid
on the side that opens it. There is an identical setup on the other side of
the engine.

I built this engine and installed it in this boat in case you are wondering
about what I know ;-) lol

"*JimH*" wrote in message
...

"JamesgangNC" wrote in message
. net...
40 is not old for a wood boat. But 15 is old for a wood encapsulated
fiberglass boat.

I think if you do some research on fiberglass boats you'll learn that
fiberglass turned out to be not really very water proof. Over years
continual exposure to water results in the transoms, stringers and floors
becoming water saturated. This predicament was made worse when laws
passed requiring boats under 25' to float even when filled with water.
The solution to that was to inject expanding foam under the floors. The
foam further traps the water against the floor and stringers worsening
the situation. If you drill into many older fiberglass boats you'll find
most of the wood is completely wet. And it will not dry out.

Today a number of companies have eliminated wood entirely from their
fiberglass boats.

Jamesgang...I know about fiberglass boats and do not need a lecture from
you about them. I am, however, glad to see you are an *expert* on
fiberglass and wood boat construction......I may defer to you later asking
for your expert opinion. ;-)

Just so you know, my friend with the 1966 Lyman (we were on it just
tonight) has spent over $30,000 in structural and top side repairs on his
wood boat over the past 4 years, a price far exceeding what the boat is
actually worth. Some folks, however, just love their boats and do not
consider the cost of repairs. He admitted so tonight. Yet this is a boat
built for Lake Erie and known for it's quality construction and ability to
take on the rough Lake Erie seas. The funny thing is that he always had
to follow me in my fiberglass boat when the lake got rough and we had to
high tail it back home, including an especially bad Lake during a passage
from Leaminton, Canada to Huron, OH. Imagine that. ;-)

I do not know whether or not this boat we are considering has wood
encapsulate stringers. If you can provide some information to that effect
it would be greatly appreciated. Regardless, if we consider buying this
boat after our one week *trial and water test* we will certainly have it
surveyed by one of the best surveyors in our area, and have a compression
test done on the engine.

If you can supply other specifics on the boat's construction and quality
it would really be appreciated.