2002 SANTE resto project

[t.franscioni]

Cool yeah I’ll check it out. I could use some inspiration!

[t.franscioni]

These are the factory hatch floors and without the carpet you can see the gaps that need to be taken up. Also what’s not shown well is without the carpet the floor pieces sit a bit lower that the rest of the floor so I’m using thicker coosa board. The belly hatch floor was 3/4” coosa whereas I’m cutting a new belly hatch panel using 1” coosa.

[t.franscioni]

New belly hatch being fitted up.

[ag4ever]

In the bow area I removed the vertical stringers. Again there was lots of air pockets and it appeared the foam cores had shrunk over time and pulled away from the fiberglass so really these bow stringers were not doing much of anything structural wise in my opinion (at least they weren’t in the current condition they were in). I think these stringers really provided something for the bow flotation foam to hold onto which was carpeted over. Anyway, with the foam and carpet gone for my project these stringers had to go so I can get a nice flat surface to gel coat over. I did glass in some CSM to bring the surface up flush with the surrounding bow area.

The foam cores do not give the fiberglass any appreciable strength. What the foam cores allow is distance between the fiberglass layers increasing the moment of inertia for the panel. This stiffens the panel substantially without requiring the added weight of a solid mass of fiberglass. By removing those stiffening members you have weakened the bow. When breaking through waves the sides of the hull will now be more likely to bow in at the mid point from the keel and the deck mating surface. This bending will eventually cause the panel to fatigue and break. It may not happen soon, but I would bet it will happen. I would suggest leveling between the ribs with more foam and laying a cloth layer over the foam for a smooth surface in lieu of removing the stiffening ribs.

[t.franscioni]

That makes complete sense in theory. I say theory not because I think your wrong, I think your making complete sense in fact my original plan was to do just that fill in between the ribs because I figured they must have been there for a reason. I just think had you seen my bow ribs in person you’d shake your head as I did. If the factory was thinking as you are then they intended well I’m sure but did a very poor job following through with their engineering plan. The issue I had with these ribs was two fold, the amount of fiberglass that was laid up over the thin foam cores was no more than a couple layers of CSM. Im no emgineer but I know that the stiffness of a fiberglass sandwich panel is dependent (among other things) on the thickness of the core and how many layers of glass you use on both sides. Also a lot of it had delaminated from the foam core due to poor lay up. So the foam cores were floating between the hull and the two layers of CSM. I knew that delamination between fiberglass and it’s core material no longer provides its intended stiffness or strength. So while I initially though I had structural ribs after I got to analyzing them I came to the conclusion that what I actually had was something that looked more important than it actually was. While thinking about it I came to the reality that there is no better structural engineering test than actual time in use and the boat has lasted this long (15+ years) with shotty delaminated bow ribs that were serving no purpose in their current state and the hull had never cracked so I figured doing away with them entirely should be a safe bet for me to make.

[t.franscioni]

Also between the keel and top deck is the floor which provides much more stiffness to the bow sides than those shotty ribs ever would have. If I’m wrong and end up at the bottom of the Lake I’ll eat these words trust me. I do appreciate your advice on this build glad to know there’s members lookin out for me! You could certainly argue I’m taking a risk by abandoning the ribs and that would be one of many risks. I’m really concerned about getting the top deck back on.

[t.franscioni]

I’m going to go ahead and eat those words now instead of after my boat is possibly sunk at the bottom of the lake. Lost some sleep last night thinking about the removal of the bow ribs now that it has been brought up as a concern. If I can get a flat surface to adhere the bow seadeck to then why not play it safe and add some reinforcement to the bow now while it’s accessible. So here’s the plan. Lay down a fresh layer of wet CSM so the foam has some fresh mat and resin to adhere to, fillet the edges of the foam panel so there are no air pockets then another several layers of glass over that. I was thinking the foam core could be cut like this.

[ag4ever]

I doubt you would find the boat at the bottom of the lake. You would see tale tale signs of impending failure long before the panel failed. The foam separating from the panels would not concern me as they don’t add any appreciable strength. What would concern me more is the lack of structure with only a couple layers of CSM. But then again, with any composite structure, you can add a lot of strength by just adding a little bit of material separated by space. The foam is only there to allow the CSM to be further from the hull and give the separation. I don’t know why they were there in the first place, it could have been for sound deadening, or adding stiffness, or some other crazy reason. Just seams that if they went through the trouble of installing them in the first place, they had a reason.

with your new foam layout I think you will just have two separate skins and only increase the stiffness at the perimeter.

think of 2 layers of cardboard, it can still be bent, but harder to bend than 1. Now instead of the 2 layers, use one with a row of pencils. Easy to bend in one direction, but real hard to bend in the other. With the 2 layers of cardboard (if separated by some space) you can still take your finger and press in the center and bow in the sheet without too much force.

[t.franscioni]

I agree your right the ribs were to stiffen the bow hull sides. Doing some reading and googling and think I can do a better job than the old bow ribs. Use better materials especially with regards to the fiberglass cloth choice and vacuum bag it for a nice tight layup to the hull. I was looking at everything yesterday and one good thing is that the hull itself is about 1/2” solid fiberglass with a layer of coremat laid up in it. So if I beef this up better than factory then if and when I end up at the bottom of the lake it won’t be because my bow cracked lol. Thanks again for bringing this up god I’m addressing it now vs after a had the gel coat sprayed in the hull.

[t.franscioni]

Finishing up the belly and fuel tank hatches while I wait on materials for the bow reinforcement. The hatches themselves were easy to square up because I’m making them from scratch and was able to cut them square on a table saw. When I fitted them up though I could see the the hull itself wasn’t square. So I’m filling the low spots with fiberglass and then will sand them straight. Also the corners need some work as well to prevent any gaps.

[wakejunky]

I had to do the same thing when I did my project last year for my GatorStep project. It's certainly time consuming trying to get things straight and uniform. I gelcoated my edges which was another time consuming step.

[t.franscioni]

I read saw your gatorstep thread when you did that. Came out really nice which is why I too want to take up the gaps now.

[ag4ever]

There is no doubt that you boat will be much better crafted than when it left the factory.

some of the gaps from the locker edges happened after the fiberglass cured. As the fiberglass cures it shrinks a little. This causes the bowing between supports.

another thing to keep in mind is the glass to resin ratio. Too much resin and it will be a weak layup, too little and it will also be weak. Vacuum bagging is the best way to get 100 saturation of the glass with the least resin used.

[t.franscioni]

Agreed.

[beamons]

Any updates?