thompsondockside.com

I have been reading the feedback in the forum and as a new owner of a 1958 Cruiser vacationer, I think that's what it is, I am sure to need all of your help. I have stripped out the varnish of the inside of the hull and am finding some rot. Ofcourse this is at the base of the keel and at the point where the ribs meet the keel. My hope is to cover it with CEPS. This hopefully would mean I do not have to replace ribs or keel. Sound right?
Have any of you, working in your garage turned over a 18'6'' boat to work on the bottom. How do you do this, or should I. I feel like I might need to replace the outside bottom piece of the keel. There was a strip of fiberglass over it and it has some bubbling. I can't imagine much good under this. More questions to come, but I will stop here to see how this works.
Thanks,

NO NO NO NO NO. CPES is not a solution to repairing rotten wood. Remove the rotten wood and replace it with new, appropriate wood material. CPES is a sealer.

The fiberglass on the outer keel was probably someones stop gap measure to fix a leak. It may be the cause for the rotten ribs in the bilge. Remove this 'glass and remove the outer keel (and maybe the outer stem). Clean up all the old finishes and caulk and get rid of the old gunk. Replace wood if needed.

Andreas

Eric

I rebuilt a 1960 Cruisers 202, 16' two years ago with simialr problems. Click on link below to see pictures of reconstruction of my boat.

Pictures are at www.aerialimaging.net/john

It's not that hard to rebuild one correctly. Two years, no leaks, sound as can be.

John Platou
832 473 8928

Ok I think you have convinced me that I need to address the keel rot. This is likelt to require me turning over the boat. Any bright Ideas? I have taken all the inside seats out. The only thing remaing is the front deck and window. I presume the window will be removed, but what about the deck? I hope to be putting the boat on a different trailer later this week. This may allow me to get to the area I need to without flipping? By the way, on the new trailer the boat will be only on the bunks. None of the boat will rest on keel rollers. I was thinking this is a good thing, right?
Thanks for the thoughts.

Rolling is easy. Remove windsheild, do not remove front deck, then slide boat off trailer on grass, should take about 4 or 5 persons to roll over. Weight is about 600 to 700 pounds. Place additional padding on rub rail in grass is hard.

My solution to rotted rib end was to replace old inner keel with one 2" wider than stock. This allowed me to remove the last inch of each rib back to good wood. Kept ribs original, and made the inner keel stronger, one of the weak points of these boats. Made it easy to remove any hook.
See pictures link above.

I just want to note what a old timer told me about wood boats on trailers, You want to suport the boat on it's keel, and very edge of transom, and no were els, side bunks are used just to keep boat from tipping side to side and should in no way support the boat. I think this makes much sence, boat would be at more risk of loosing shape if supported like modern day fiberglass boats. Wet wood would to take new shape overtime this may cause unwanted performance.
just think of a you placing a sheat of plywould on a set of saw horses, overtime the sheet of wood would sag and retain it's saggy shape.
As for the rot, I have almost the same boat, with same problem good luck to the both of us.
Travis Wynn
Waupaca, WI

I have just finished replacing keel cap on my 65 Cruisers Inc. 20' Seacamper. I had a fairly solid keel but it had some surface damage from roller and bottom abraision. The cap on the stem section was in good shape other than some roller damage at end.
I removed all screws, they were snug but easily removed, I pulled most of them while on the trailer. I had to block hull up and partially suspend from ceiling of my building. The cap came right off as all bronze bolts that had been bolted through from top of center inner keel had been broken in half, probably due to ice damage. By removing cap I could inspect all plwood edges and poke at inner keel to check for soft spots, thankfully none were found.
I had new piece of oak rough cut and then copied shape from old cap. I cut into stem cap 6-8' to remove a damaged area there and scarfed the new keel into that area on the stem cap.
The plywood sheets met under cap were in very good shape, i cleaned out old chaulk and sealed with a thinned epoxy mix. these sheets on my boat had been originally attached with nails only. I added silicon bronze screws every 6 inches to tighen up bottom. I attached cap bedded in 5200 and screwed in new #12 silicon bronze screws. I then drilled from inside the hull down throught the new cap to locate bolt holes.
New silicon carriage bolts were added and tightened completeing th replacement.
I filled holes with formula 27 and sealed all in thinned epoxy.
These caps can be done from underneath as the seacamper would be a tough turn over.
Pull your cap and see what you find.

Mudshovel.. your comments are interesting to me, and in conflict with what I have been told... I was told that the keel rollers are mainly to guide the boat on to the trailer, and should not support the weight of the boat...

This makes sense to me, since I would think that over time, the weight pressure would tend to push up the general V shape, and flatten things out. I was told that the weight should be mostly on the side bunks and at the knee in the bow. Also, that I should be able to turn the rollers by hand.

As I let my boat dry out and worked on it over a two year period, I gradually lowered the rollers when they were so tight I couldn't spin them by hand. Eventually, the shape which appeared to be the original design began to return (with additional help of sand tubes and barbell plates). Now, with a firm grip, I can spin the rollers, and I feel comfortable it is more appropriate for the boat.

By the way, the bunks were previously banks of 5-6 rollers (like the old wringer washer rollers).. the broken rollers lead to some damage to the side laps.

I am interested in any other comments about trailer support, as my boat spends most of it's time there. My rear bunks are about 40" long and 4-5" wide so there is a fair amount of surface area for support... I added a 2 ft bunk that the knee rests on and would like to add several small (1 ft) bunks up front on either side also.

John Hart.

John, I had a trailer made for my 58 sea lancer last year. It sits on 5 bunks in the back and three bunks in the front. The back bunks range from 8 feet long (center bunk) to 4 feet toward the outside. The three bunks cradle the front. There are no rollers on my trailer. I too had the old style trailer and this is much better support!! It also sits much lower so it trailers much easier. I was very happy to relace the old "roller bunk" with center rollers model. Ernie