rotted stringers

[82trojan36]

Has anyone experienced rotted stringers in their 36 foot convertible? Cockpit to mid ship. Any advise? The boat is nice but is it worth fixing?

[bjanakos]

That's a huge question and the best answer is "It depends..."

How bad are they? How long have they been rotting?

People have fixed stringers, I have never had the pleasure.

Personally, and this is MY OWN opinion, unless the boat was free, or even came with a few thousand dollars, I would take a pass. It's a buyers market now.

[82trojan36]

Unfortunately the rot was found after we pulled the engines. I dont know if i should lose what my investment is or go ahead and fix this mess

[JimK]

If you are replacing the stringers with near term plans to sell the boat, my guess is that you will have trouble getting your money back on the stringers but you will have a boat that can be sold. I am not sure what your options are for getting rid of it with bad stringers. You may be lucky to give it away.

If you like the boat and you plan to keep it and know that everything else, especially high ticket or high effort items (engines, solid decks, functioning A/C, nice interior, fuel tanks, etc) are in great shape, replacing the stringers puts you in a position where you end up with a very good boat and reason to think that you will not be following one big investment with another. I am a fan of going with the known quantities. If you buy a used boat to replace yours, you may find one that appears to have solid stringers or excellent engines only to find out next year that the survey did not show everything and now you are stuck investing in a boat that could have other expensive surprises.

[bjanakos]

Unfortunately the rot was found after we pulled the engines. I dont know if i should lose what my investment is or go ahead and fix this mess

Unfortunate, sorry to hear that...

But if you already pulled the motors for other reasons, a lot of the hard work is done.

There is a ton of info on-line about stringer repair and there are options anywhere between drying out and filling with epoxy to completely dug out and re-glassed stringer. It all depends on how bad it is... If you can't get that figured out, give a call to a shipwright and have him take a look. Even at $100 or so for his time can be money well spent to deciding to repair or part out.

Good luck...

[mikeandanne]

I agree with everything above,looks like you were going to do the engines so this is the perfect time to repair stuff like this....now if you are the type to keep things for a long time then maybe I would not worry about it , cost over time wise. Our boat had new stringers and rebuilt engines and that is the only reason I bought it , although I had always liked the lines of the f32/f36.The PO never got his money from it as I have the receipts for all the work done, wow. Get some estimates and see what real money you are looking at and then you can make an informed decision....Mike

[SVP]

I'm going through this same situation now. Ask yourself if your planning on owning it long term. We looked at several F36's for sale on Lake Michigan before finding one perfect for our needs. It looked great and was well maintained. It failed the survey with completely rotten inboard stringers from cockpit to forward engine bulkhead (our surveyor knew trojans inside and out, took 15 minutes). We knew any of the boats we looked at could have also be rotten. Since we planned on this being our last boat we negotiated the cost of replacement into the price. It is not a cheap repair! 80% of my estimate was labor. If your engines are out, your already part way. Keep in mind, it will be difficult to sell any boat with rotten stringers. If you love the boat and plan on keeping it you should at least get an estimate on the repair. I plan on keeping mine a long time, a 30 year old boat with better than new stringers and the piece of mind that goes with it.

[Big D]

Funny this should come up, just finished replacing inboard stringers on one from the bulkhead in front of engines to the transom. As indicated above, a large part of the labour is removing and installing the engines. All adds up though when you then have to remove other hardware out of the way to do glass work like wiring, plumbing, pumps, batteries, and when going to the transom there's more wiring, plumbing, generator, steering gear, trim pump, etc. Always bound to run into something unexpected along the way too so plan for that. If you have a problem in the main engine bay, take a very close look at the stringers under the cockpit. I found a few surprises there that led to replacing everything right to the transom. Under the generator was a shocker. I've done a few Trojans but a hell of a lot more Sea Rays, Silvertons, Rinkers, Chris Crafts...you name it. Don't skimp here and do your homework so it gets done right by someone who knows what they're doing so it won't come back to haunt you a few years later and make the expense seem like a waste....there will be more surveys!

For this particular owner it was worth it. No plans to sell though we know that is always a temporary thought but he's aware that he'll probably never recover the costs. Having said that, what was it worth before; $0.00? Now it's worth something not to mention a very solid hull that some new manufacturer's can only hope to achieve, and a huge piece of mind. It'll be a good full boating season for him and his family this year, he won't have to worry about multiple engine alignments anymore from engines moving around. What kills me is that nobody caught on to this after several alignments over the last couple of years.

[82trojan36]

Thank you all for your comments !! Where can I find info on stringer repair?

[Paul]

Should be able to get some ideas from the site below. West System is the resin of choice for many fiberglass repairs.

www.westsystem.com

[DAVIDLOFLAND]

Is the rotted stringer issue limited to the F36? I don't recall seeing posts about rotted stringers in F32's, though I could have easily missed them.

[prowlersfish]

Is the rotted stringer issue limited to the F36? I don't recall seeing posts about rotted stringers in F32's, though I could have easily missed them.

No , and I hate to say it I have seem more on this issue on F32s posted over the years . But they also made more F32s . This not a "Trojan issue " it affects other brands . Hulls that sit on land and fill with water are very prone to it .