quote:Originally posted by Tailspin
Could be full of Dryrot, you never do know! I have hand shoveled the stringers out of a few boats in my time. Maybe Last Chance knows if the stringers were glassed in these years?
My 23 was over 30 years old, stringers were fully glassed up the sides. The tops were shaved off to make it level for the floor, but the only place water got to them was at the back near where the engine beds were. Dried one of them out, re-glassed, and it was fine. The stringers are visable the whole length of the boat, you can sound them with a Ball Peen hammer, any sound changes will alert you to problems. When on a trailer, just locate the outboard and inboard stringers, and tap your way along listening for the sound to changed.
The decks can be a little soft at times as they only put a layer of what looked like 6 oz cloth on them, but decks are easy to deal wtih, just cut out the bad, glass another hunk of 1/2" ply in.
Just lift up the doghouse, and sound your way along, lift the fuel tank hatch, you should have some access there. The cabin step in my 26 was damp due to poorly placed limber holes, but this piece isn't really strutural anyway, and was only damp, not rotten. Just tap your way along untill you get to the V-berth bulkhead, if it doesn't go "Duff" instead of a nice "Click", you are good. The transoms are quite accessable to check out, and not really a big deal to replace if need be. Poke with the blunt end of a file if it's not glassed over, if it is glassed over, tap away with your hammer.
Check around the trim tabs, these boats are heavy in the butt end, so breaking the seal around the trim caulking happened on both of mine. On my 23, I repaired an area, on my 26, it was just a little damp so I hit it hard with the heat lamps for a few weeks, dried it out, re-caulked and called it good.
The only REAL downside of the boat in the ad is the 28 year old sterndrive setup. That big aluminium leg is going to kick someone in the nuts if it hasn't been babied.