Master Marine 28' stringer question

[doug42190]

It has been a very long haul since last November. November 13th I got the 4th and final stringer installed; fillet and tabbed. Since then there have been major interruptions to progress; Thanksgiving, followed by four full weekends of butt busting work to get my parent's house in a condition to put it on the market (they moved in with my sister -- too many needs to live alone). "The house is perfect" my father told me. Mechanically good, cosmetically gross. After four weekends of travel Friday, then work Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, drive back Monday night, I got it to a point that I think it will sell. It has not thus far and I would appreciate any prayers to get it sold. Then there was Christmas and we traveled for almost three weeks after Christmas. So I got the chance to get back to work mid-January.
Since then, I am very happy to report that I have gotten two layers covering the stringers. Shine recommended to go with either 1 layer of 1708 (24 ounces) or 2 layers of 12 ounce, no mat (24 ounces). He said that the two layers would be better structurally than the 1708 and it would form over the edges much easier. I had some 12 ounce but not enough. I had some 17 ounce, not enough. So 1 layer of 17 ounce followed by 1 layer of 12 ounce -- 29 ounces -- should be solid!





I am fairly well pleased with the results. I have to extend a very important "thank you" to my 36 year old daughter, Kelly, who spent last Sunday and Monday slinging fiberglass and epoxy with me to get all the stringers completed! It was amazing how quickly she caught on and how she simply somehow knew how to get the air bubbles out and smooth it out to look very nice. There is no way that I could have gotten that much done in one weekend -- 2 stringers at 15" X 15 feet and 2 stringers 10" X 15 feet. That was a lot of glass and epoxy.
So today I have the chance to get more done -- but I feel paralyzed -- for weeks I have had a plan -- get through with the stringers. They are done now and I realized I wasn't prepared to be done as I have no "next step" laid out. So all of today I have spent in front of the computer typing out pages of "next steps." Now I can use some advice. My thoughts are to get the holes drilled/filled/redrilled and pads mounted for the through hulls -- transducer and fresh water intake. Also to mount the pad for the bilge pump. I was thinking that the next step would be to make all of the transverse frames (under the sole between the stringers) and bulkheads and install them -- fillet, tab, and layer of fiberglass (Douglas Fir).

As far as the fiberglass on the frames -- is 10 ounce cloth sufficient? I thought for the bulkheads I would use 1 layer of 1708 on each side. Any thoughts?

That would let me get the two 3" rigging tubes installed. Then the cleats and "platform" for the fuel tank and put the tank back in. Follow that by cleats on the stringers and the hull side to attach the sole.

If anyone has any suggestions, comments, or concerns, I would greatly appreciate your sharing them.
Doug

[AtTheBrink]

First the important stuff, prayers for the selling of your parents home. Done!

Now the boat building stuff.
what I would do is start working on your frames. At the same time get those little pieces ready too. You are going to have leftover epoxy and epoxy glue when working on your frames and having some little things around that need doing will make good use of the leftovers rather than just throughing it away.
On the glass weight for covering your frames I would use 12oz biax. It is easy to work with and wets out easily. It will probably be easier to finish too and you'll use alot less epoxy. I am sure the 10oz woven would work just fine as well.

Your stringer turned out great!

[doug42190]

AtTheBrink,
Thank you for the prayers and the comments. I probably wasn't very clear about my thinking on the 10 ounce covering for the floor frames -- I was thinking 10 ounce cloth -- probably it is heavier than what they use on stitch and glue boats and canoes, but that stuff. I can't imagine what it would be like to work with roving -- and just thinking about it makes me shudder. That's one product I don't think I will ever need to try my hand at. I'll bet roving really does suck up mega dollars worth of epoxy!
Thanks for the thoughts on keeping small stuff handy to use up mixed epoxy -- that's a good idea. I also appreciate the thumbs up on the stringers. I think I am starting to get the hang of this stuff -- to a degree.

Doug

[AtTheBrink]

You are welcome! And we are talking about the same stuff. 10.oz cloth. I know nothing about roving other than I saw it for sale at.West Marine...

[doug42190]

AtTheBrink,
Now I get it -- just when I thought I was really starting to understand the lingo, I realize there are different ways to call stuff by name. When you said "woven" my brain instantly thought "woven, woven...ah yeah, woven roving (or is it the other way around?)" and I went to that material rather than woven=cloth. As soon as I read your second reply I realized that we were both speaking about cloth -- you just called it by something different than I did. So, thank you for clearing that up for me.
I think I will go with the 12 ounce biax for the frame and bulkhead covering because it is easy to work with and stronger than cloth. A couple of questions:
Is one layer enough for floor frames and for bulkheads?
I cannot seem to get a clear picture -- does one keep the floor frames and bulkheads a little off of the hull, the way stringers are set to prevent hardspots, or is it OK to set frames and bulkheads on the hull? I don't seem to be able to get comfortable with my own answer to this question.
Thank you for your help.
Doug

[topwater]

Just like the stringers , a little space all around , glue them in , fillet, and glass .
No hard spots .

[doug42190]

topwater,
Thank you for clearing that up for me. I was driving myself crazy on this one as I could find little written about it and even then it was sometimes conflicting. A little extra space is easy enough.
Doug

[AtTheBrink]

And one layer of 12oz on your frames and bulkheads is plenty. It is really just for abrasion resistance. I am covering only the exposed areas on my build using 6oz cloth. If I have leftover I may cover the bottoms of the storage compartments.

[FitzFisher]

Helllllllooooooo!???!!??
Doug are you out there? What's going on with the MM28? Drop us a line and catch up on the thread....Hope all is well.
TG

[doug42190]

Fitz,
Really good to hear from you. I have been off of the site for way too long. I have been battling our HOA for several months and several thousand dollars. We reached what likely will be the settlement today and they got exactly what I offered 6 months ago -- nothing more. What a nightmare. So I was prohibited from using "power tools" because they annoyed my neighbor -- well, they found out that wasn't enforceable but it has been costly. So we assume that in the next 10 days or so, I will be "allowed" to go back to work -- what a crock!
How is your ride? Surely you are finished and catching fish! I need to get back in the swing of things and wrap this project up.
Take care.
Doug