thompsondockside.com

did a search on forefoot repair and nothing came up maybe it's called something else (using danenberg's definition). what i'm trying to do, and maybe i'm asking for a lot of trouble, is this: on my '57 15' sea coaster, the stem appears to be in good shape. however, the forefoot is suspect. i want to remove it and inspect it. a friend of mine who restored a sea lancer said to leave it alone. he suggested using cpes and then taking care of the cosmetics. being afflicted with ocd, it will always bother me if i don't at least look at it - especially if the boat sinks!!!! can anyone offer some advice. thanks.

Forefoot is part of the inner stem.

If you think it may be suspect, yes, by all means get at it. Just pouring googe on it and doing cosmetics is a poor approach.

Can you inspect from the interior of the boat and poke around?

Otherwise you will have to remove the outer stem, outer keel and garboard planks to get at it.

Andreas

Ok AJR, school me... what is this "forefoot" ... is it what I would have called the inner stem? or some sub-set of the inner stem?
Joe B

In Don Danenberg's book, a sketch of a typical inboard runabout points to the lower portion of the stem as the forefoot. This is the piece that connects with the keelson. A typical Chris-Craft utility or runabout had an "inner stem" only, no outer stem like a lapstrake Thompson. The planking was attached into a rabbit cut into the stem.

In an October 1961 sketch by Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. of Peshtigo the inner stem is made up of three individual pieces of solid wood. They just call the three pieces "inner stem". The outer stem is steam bent and installed after the planking covers up the inner stem.

This is model 900, the Sea Lancer by Thompson Bros. Boat Mfg. Co. at Peshtigo, WI:


Andreas